Review: Nintendo’s TVii tops button-laden remotes






LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nintendo‘s TV-watching tool for the new Wii U game console beats my regular remote control hands down.


Called TVii, the service transforms how you watch television in three key ways. It turns the touch-screen GamePad controller for the Wii U into a remote control for your TV and set-top box. It groups your favorite shows and sports teams together, whether it’s on live TV or an Internet video service such as Hulu Plus. And it offers water-cooler moments you can chat about on social media.






It takes some getting used to, and I had a lot of re-learning to do after years of using my thumb to channel surf. But once I did, I found the service an advance from the mass of buttons on most TV remote controls.


TVii comes free with the Wii U, although it didn’t become available in the U.S. until mid-December, about a month after the game machine’s debut.


One nice touch is that TVii gives you a way to search for shows over Internet video apps and live TV all in one place. I can then choose whether to watch it on the big TV or on my controller’s touch screen, which measures 6.2 inches diagonally.


Handling these different sources of video at once is a tall order, and Nintendo Co. does it pretty well. No one else has combined live and Web TV as seamlessly before. As the lines blur between the two, I would hope some of TVii’s advances are copied and improved upon by other gadget makers and TV signal providers.


For starters, TVii asks for your TV maker, your set-top box maker, your location and your TV provider (that could be an antenna). TVii then uses infrared codes to control your TV just like the old remote, and it can offer a traditional channel guide for live TV shows. TVii also asks for your favorite shows, sports teams and movies. This helps it create an easy-to-understand grouping of shows you might want to watch.


I appreciate the way TVii walked me through the setup process. It was refreshing, given the misfortune I recently had of trying to program the remote control that came with my cable set-top box, which is about as fun as doing your tax returns. TVii takes away the need to read folded-up instruction manuals that appear to be written by and for electronics hobbyists.


After the setup, TVii presents you with a series of icons for Favorites, TV, Movies, Sports and Search. A little avatar of your identity is in one corner, and tapping on it lets you adjust your favorites or go through the setup again. Each person in a household can have a different avatar and set of favorites.


In Favorites, your shows are listed with cover art, and you can swipe through the offerings. Tapping one, say, “The Mindy Project,” will pull up an episode list with pictures and brief summaries. Choosing an episode will bring up a range of options — the channel if it’s on live TV, or buttons for Hulu Plus or Amazon, where you can pay for monthly access or just one episode through the service’s app. (The free version of Hulu is blocked on gadgets, including the Wii U and tablet computers. Apple’s iTunes, unsurprisingly, isn’t integrated.) The option of clicking through to Netflix will be added some time in 2013.


One hiccup is that if you want to watch a show on live TV now, it asks if your TV’s input source is already set to the set-top box, rather than the Wii U or another gadget such as a DVD player. If it is, you tap “yes” and the channel changes. If not, you have to tap until the source switches to the right one and then tap “yes.” Still, there’s no need to go back to your TV’s remote control.


The other menu items for TV, Movies, Sports and Search operate pretty similarly. Eventually you’ll get a range of options to watch. In the case of sports, you’ll likely see several game possibilities, with the latest score showing up on each game icon.


As an alternative, you can resort to a physical TV button on the GamePad that brings up touch controls that mimic a simplified, standard remote.


Another option is using an altogether separate interface in which favorite channels and other controls are displayed graphically on a semi-circular wheel. It looks strange, and I wouldn’t recommend it.


Anyone who is frustrated by the jumble of cables and boxes that now surround TVs will see TVii’s appeal. My wife said she liked the ease of holding and touching the controller, rather than fiddling with the button-laden remote. One downside I can see with TVii is that you have to keep looking down to figure out what to watch. And you have to plug it in frequently, as the GamePad controller will die out after three to five hours of use.


TVii also offers a standard channel guide in which you can scroll up and down for programs on different channels or right and left for different times of day. A touch will change the channel to the program, which is nice.


For certain shows and sporting events, TVii will supply a running list of key events called “TV tags.” These descriptions of events, like the precise moment when Mindy’s Christmas party descends into chaos, are displayed on the GamePad’s screen, along with a screenshot. Tapping on one opens up a comment window, and an onscreen keyboard allows you to make a comment. For sports, you get a description of each play, such as the number of yards thrown in a pass, beside a graphic that gets updated.


Not many people have Wii U consoles yet, nor is everyone tuned to TVii. As a result, I found myself with only one or two commenters to share my thoughts with.


If you’ve connected TVii to Facebook and Twitter (again, some sign-up is involved), your comments will go out to your friends and followers, but the TV tag that you are commenting on won’t show up, so they might not know what you’re talking about. TVii adds the hashtag “NintendoTVii” to help readers take a guess.


In the end, TVii isn’t perfect.


It isn’t yet able to program your digital video recorder, although it will do so for TiVo DVRs by March. Sports are limited to pro and college basketball and football, and there’s no integration with fantasy sports leagues. And the battery life of the GamePad is short.


A review unit I was sent failed to take a charge and had to be replaced, although I haven’t found others who have had the same problem.


These irritations aside, Nintendo has given us a way to control the clutter of channels, apps and devices crowding around the TV. It’s relatively easy and intuitive and some updates are on the way. Considering the garble of the TV universe, that’s pretty good.


___


About TVii:


TVii turns the GamePad controller for the Wii U into a remote control that integrates your live TV and Internet video experience. The service is free, but you’ll need a Wii U game console, which starts at $ 300. You’ll also need to pay extra to use video services such as Hulu Plus, Amazon and Netflix.


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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U.S. pop singer Patti Page dies at age 85






LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – American pop singer Patti Page, whose 1950 hit “Tennessee Waltz” topped the charts for months, has died in Southern California, her manager said on Wednesday. She was 85.


Nicknamed “The Singing’ Rage,” Page sold more than 100 million albums in her 67-year career, which included 1950s chart toppers “(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window,” “I Went to Your Wedding” and “All My Love (Bolero).”






She died on Tuesday in a nursing home in Encinitas, north of San Diego, after suffering congestive heart failure, her manager, Michael Glynn, told Reuters.


“She’d been having some health issues for the past couple of years,” Glynn said. “She was actually doing better yesterday. I spoke to her and she sounded well.”


Page won a Grammy for her 1998 album “Live at Carnegie Hall: The 50th Anniversary Concert” and will be honored with a lifetime achievement Grammy in February. She had expected to attend the ceremony, Glynn said.


Page was born in Oklahoma as Clara Ann Fowler in 1927 and was known for her light, every-girl voice. Her first big hit was “With My Eyes Wide Open, I’m Dreaming,” which peaked at No. 11 on the charts in 1950.


Eight years later, Page scored her penultimate top-10 song, “Left Right Out of Your Heart,” as rock ‘n’ roll was emerging as the dominant trend in popular music.


Her final big hit was “Hush … Hush Sweet Charlotte” in 1965. The song served as the theme of a film of the same name starring Bette Davis.


Her reputation was burnished in recent years when rock group The White Stripes covered her 1952 song “Conquest” on their Grammy-winning 2007 album “Icky Thump.”


She was married three times, most recently in 1990.


Page is survived by her two children, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.


(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Peter Cooney)


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Clinton discharged from hospital, doctors expect full recovery






WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was discharged from a New York hospital on Wednesday after being treated for a blood clot near her brain and her doctors expect her to make a full recovery, the State Department said.


Clinton, who has not been seen in public since December 7, was at New York-Presbyterian Hospital under treatment for a blood clot behind her right ear that stemmed from a concussion she suffered in mid-December, the department said on Sunday.






The concussion was the result of an earlier illness, described by the State Department as a stomach virus she had picked up during a trip to Europe that led to dehydration and a fainting spell after she returned to the United States.


Secretary Clinton was discharged from the hospital this evening. Her medical team advised her that she is making good progress on all fronts, and they are confident she will make a full recovery,” Philippe Reines, a deputy assistant secretary of state, said in a statement.


Reines said Clinton was “eager to get back to the office.”


Earlier, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily briefing Clinton had been talking with her staff by telephone and receiving memos.


Clinton also spoke to two foreign officials – the U.N. envoy on Syria and the prime minister of Qatar – on Saturday, the day before the State Department disclosed the blood clot and her stay at the hospital.


In a statement released by the State Department on Monday, Clinton’s doctors said she was being treated with blood thinners and would be released from the hospital once the correct dosage had been determined.


(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Sandra Maler and Todd Eastham)


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A Relief Rally, a Dead-Cat Bounce, or an Ephemeral Rise






Though Maryland born and bred, Josh Scheinker affects a SoCal zen, complete with what seems like a surfer-dude tan and coif. But the senior vice president of Janney Montgomery Scott’s Baltimore-based Scheinker Investment Partners admits that fear and loathing toward the fiscal cliff had shattered his calm. “My wife and kids,” Scheinker says, “were all wondering why my New Year’s was so stressful, why I was watching C-SPAN, and whether I needed to be in a white padded room.”


Scheinker, along with rest of Wall Street and global markets, celebrated Wednesday after Washington churned out a 13th-hour deal to stave off $ 600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts. All manner of risk assets, including stocks and commodities, surged to start 2013, after the House’s 257-167 vote on the hastily cobbled-together deal. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor’s 500, and Nasdaq rallied an average of 2.65 percent. Europe and emerging markets rejoiced. Catastrophe avoided. At least mostly, for now.






Uncle Sam will permanently tax dividends and long-term capital gains at a 10 percent, 15 percent, or 20 percent rate, depending on a person’s or household’s overall income. Without this new certainty, the levy on dividends would have automatically jacked up to taxpayers’ ordinary income-tax rate. The bad news: Taxpayers with modified adjusted gross incomes of more than $ 200,000 for individuals and $ 250,000 for married joint filers will have to pay an additional 3.8 percent Affordable Care Act tax on their net investment income.


It’s a tricky grab for lawmakers on both sides of the partisan divide: How much and where, specifically, do you tax investors, who have been privy to a multiyear bull market in equities and fixed-income—an unavoidably attractive target for badly needed government revenue? How do you tap that source without choking off the undeniable wealth effect of a rising market? Love them or hate them, the top 20 percent of American income earners own about 90 percent of shares, a relationship that correlates disproportionately with retail sales, the health of which courses through the broader economy.


“Today the stock market has increasingly become the disciplining force in spurring action in Washington,” wrote Merrill Lynch economist Ethan Harris on Monday. “‘Stock market vigilantes’ have replaced ‘bond market vigilantes.’”


That’s a curious observation in light of how big a year markets had in the face of what was widely bandied as looming budgetary catastrophe. How urgently will lawmakers finish the substantial unfinished business of raising the country’s $ 16.4 trillion debt limit or deal with sequestration’s huge budget cuts if the market goes into panic mode?


For his part, Blackstone’s Byron Wien said the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index will fall below 1,300 this year (from its current 1,456). He correctly called the S&P’s ascent last year above 1,400. Not once last year did the market have a single day when it was down for the year.


“The hard work,” says Janney Montgomery chief fixed-income strategist Guy LeBas, “is far from done. The cliff represented the confluence of opposing needs to reduce the long-term budget deficit and support short-term economic growth. Congress, in this instance, opted for the immediate benefits of the latter rather than the stability of the former. That decision delays what will inevitably be tougher decisions in the long run.”


“So, is this a relief rally, a dead-cat bounce, or just an ephemeral rise?” asks Scheinker, who says he plans to glue himself to C-SPAN again next month. “Do I feel comfortable here? No, not really. Does the market truly understand what deal was just signed off on? I am not too sure. I can tell you that my clients are very worried about the future of America.”


Businessweek.com — Top News





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GM recalls 145,628 mid-sized pickups for hood latch issue






(Reuters) – General Motors Co said on Thursday it is recalling 145,628 mid-sized pickup trucks globally as the hood could open unexpectedly due to a possible missing latch.


Of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickups affected by the recall, 118,800 are in the United States, 15,264 are in Canada, 7,492 are in Mexico and the rest are exports, GM said.






GM is recalling the model year 2010 to 2012 trucks because the hood may be missing a secondary hood latch, so if the primary latch is not engaged the hood could open and block the driver’s view and increase the risk of a crash, according to documents filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.


There are no reports of crashes or injuries related to the issue, and there are four known cases of the secondary hood latch being missing, GM said.


GM said it will notify owners and instruct them to inspect their trucks for the presence of a secondary hood latch or take the truck to a dealer for inspection. If the secondary latch is missing, a new hood will be installed, the company said.


Dealers were notified of the issue on December 18 and GM expects to begin mailing letters to owners on January 17, according to NHTSA.


(Reporting By Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)


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Thieves stole more than $1 million worth of Apple products during a New Years Eve heist









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Playboy Hugh Hefner marries his ‘runaway bride’






LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hugh Hefner is celebrating the new year as a married man once again.


The 86-year-old Playboy magazine founder exchanged vows with his “runaway bride,” Crystal Harris, at a private Playboy Mansion ceremony on New Year’s Eve. Harris, a 26-year-old “Playmate of the Month” in 2009, broke off a previous engagement to Hefner just before they were to be married in 2011.






Playboy said on Tuesday that the couple celebrated at a New Year’s Eve party at the mansion with guests that included comic Jon Lovitz, Gene Simmons of KISS and baseball star Evan Longoria.


The bride wore a strapless gown in soft pink, Hefner a black tux. Hefner’s been married twice before but lived the single life between 1959 and 1989.


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Gambian leader says to build herbal AIDS-cure hospital






BANJUL (Reuters) – AIDS patients would be offered an herbal cure at a 1,111-bed hospital in Gambia that the president said on Tuesday he plans to build despite medical concerns the treatment is dangerous.


President Yahya Jammeh said in 2007 he had found a remedy of boiled herbs to cure AIDS, stirring anger among Western medical experts who claimed he was giving false hope to the sick.






“With this project coming to fruition, we intend to treat 10,000 HIV/AIDS patients every six months through natural medicine,” Jammeh said in his New Year’s address, adding that he expected the 1,111-bed hospital to open in 2015.


The World Health Organisation and the United Nations have said Jammeh’s HIV/AIDS treatment is alarming mainly because patients are required to cease their anti-retroviral drugs, making them more prone to infection.


Jammeh said in October that 68 HIV/AIDS patients undergoing his herbal remedy had been cured and discharged, the seventh batch since the treatments began five years ago.


Other African leaders have drawn criticism for extolling the power of natural remedies to combat AIDS.


The administration of former South African President Thabo Mbeki was ridiculed for denying there was a link between HIV and AIDS while prescribing meaningless treatments such as beet root instead of internationally proven medicines.


The HIV rate in Gambia is relatively low compared to other African states, with 2 percent of the country’s roughly 1.8 million people infected, according to the United Nations.


Jammeh came to power in Gambia, a sliver of land on Africa’s west coast that is popular with sun-seeking European tourists, in a bloodless military coup in 1994.


He is accused by activists of human rights abuses during his rule, and most recently drew international criticism for executing nine death-row inmates by firing squad.


(Reporting by Pap Saine; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Michael Roddy)


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London Market Report







Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story






(Close): London’s leading shares fell in Monday trading, amid fears that budget talks would not stop the US sliding over the “fiscal cliff”.


In a truncated New Year’s Eve session, the benchmark FTSE 100 index dropped by 0.47%, or 27.56 points, to 5,897.81.


However, the index still ended the year nearly 6% higher, having fallen by 5.6% during 2011.


Engineering firm Melrose Industries did worst on the day, down 3.5%. Capital Shopping Centres Group shed 2.1%.


Leading the day’s winners, B&Q owner Kingfisher bucked the downward trend with a rise of 0.8%.


The broader-based FTSE 250 index had an even better year, notching up record annual gains of 22%.


The 250-share index is seen as more representative of the British economy as a whole, since it contains a greater proportion of firms that are actually based in the UK.


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France counts 1,193 cars torched on New Year’s Eve






PARIS (AP) — A New Year’s Eve tradition for some in France of torching empty, parked cars has continued.


Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that 1,193 vehicles were burned overnight around the country, where the stunt began in the 1990s.






There was no way to compare this figure to recent ones because the conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy stopped making the numbers public while he was in office. But the rate of burned cars was apparently steady. On Dec. 31, 2009, 1,147 vehicles were burned.


For some, the decision of France’s current Socialist government to resume making public figures of New Year’s Eve’s torched cars is unwise.


Bruno Beschizza, a security chief for Sarkozy’s UMP party, said on iTele TV that publishing the numbers motivates youths to commit such crimes.


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