Acer Aspire S7-191-6640

The Acer Aspire S7-191-6640 ($1,199.99) is a road warrior's ultrabook. It has high-end features like a 128GB SSD, 1080p ten-point touch screen, and weighs less than 2.25 pounds without accessories. The ultrabook comes highly recommended as a commuter or jet traveler who must have a full Windows 8 PC with her at all times. Only a few stumbles?like limited ports and anemic standard battery life?keep the system from our highest honors.

Design and Features
The S7-191-6640 looks every bit the little brother of the 13.3-inch Acer Aspire S7-391-9886 ($1,649.99), with a slim, compact profile, measuring only 11.25 by 7.75 by 0.48 inches (HWD). The S7-191-6640 has an aluminum lid with a diagonal brushed pattern, Gorilla Glass 2 covering the 11.6-inch touch screen, and a silver-colored keyboard and keyboard deck. The full sized keyboard is backlit, and is comfortable to use despite a very shallow key travel. Like its big brother, the S7-191-6640 eschews the row of function keys, rather incorporating those keys into the number keys on the top of the keyboard. Other keys do double duty as well: Fn-U increases the keyboard backlit brightness, for example.

The S7-191-6640 weighs a scant 2.24 pounds alone, and a still svelte 2.63 pounds with the included extended battery installed. This makes the system just as portable as systems like the Apple MacBook Air 11-inch (Mid 2012) ($999) and HP EliteBook 2170p ($1,099). These are road warrior systems, where you give up a little (processor power, number of I/O ports, etc.) in return for a system that fits easily in your commute bag and can travel with you everywhere.

The S7-191-6640 comes with a 11.6-inch, 1,920-by-1,080-resolution touch screen, which significantly more packed with pixels than the 1,366 by 768 resolution screen usually seen on smaller displays. This means that you can view all the video in a 1080p HD online video, as well as several full pages of data when viewing a spreadsheet or Word document. You'll find a larger work surface on the S7-191-6640 than on systems like the HP Envy X2 (11-g012nr) ($849), which has an 11.6-inch 1,366 by 768 screen. But 1080p in such a small screen can also mean that text at 100% zoom will be quite small, so you may have to fiddle with the zoom settings a bit if you're eyesight isn't 20/20. Also, some games may not look quite right until you find the right combination of settings. That said, we think many users will welcome the HD video capabilities of the S7-191-6640.

The screen uses IPS technology, so it's visible from many angles. Speaking of angles, the system's screen hinge has a dual friction setup, so it's harder to push the screen past 90 degrees. Acer did this to help curb screen bounce when you use the built-in touch screen. The touch screen is responsive, correctly interpreting our taps with a single finger. This is an improvement over the Acer Iconia W700-6465 tablet ($999.99), which had some trouble by registering a tap on the maximize button when we meant to tap the close button on windows in Desktop mode.

Speaking of video, the S7-191-6640 comes with a micro-HDMI port on the back, which requires an adapter, which isn't included. It's the same for other formats like VGA or DVI. The S7-191-6640 comes with a Bluetooth mouse for precise pointing. The system only has two USB 3.0 ports, so connecting your smartphone and an external hard drive would fill up the ports.

There are a couple of indents built into the chassis to hook up the included extended battery. The system doesn't have a traditional removable battery or a docking port, so the extended battery uses the laptop's charging port to pass power through. This simplistic workaround has a drawback: The extended battery doesn't show up in Windows, so you'll have to interpret the five-lights in the LED indicator on the side of the extended battery to figure out how much charge you've got. Thumbwheel screws hold the battery in place, making the whole exercise feel like a laptop battery setup from the mid 1990s. It's effective, but nevertheless feels like a kludge on what is otherwise an elegant looking system.

Thanks to Microsoft Signature setup, the S7-191-6640 comes with no extra software pre-loaded aside from Microsoft products like Office Trial, Skype, and Windows Defender. This is a vast improvement over systems like the HP Envy X2, which has quite a few programs pre-installed. The S7-191-6640 comes with a 128GB SSD, with about 75GB free when you take it out of the box. The system has a one-year warranty.

Performance
The Intel Core i5-3317U and four GB of memory are pretty standard specs for systems in this price range, The Acer Iconia W700-6465, HP EliteBook 2170p, and the Editor's Choice for high-end ultrabooks, the Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A-BHI5T ($1199), all come with this setup. Therefore, it's no surprise that these systems all have similar CineBench, Handbrake, and Photoshop CS6 results. The HP lags behind the others in PCMark7, due to its spinning hard drive, but all are closely matched on the 3D tests, since they all have Intel HD Graphics 4000.

The performance stat that really matters is the system's battery rundown score, and on that note the S7-191-6640 is mixed. The sealed internal battery is only good for a short 3 hours 42 minutes. This is far less than the Asus UX31A-BHI5T (6:38) or the MacBook Air (5:19). However, when you add the extended battery, the S7-191-6640 achieves an excellent 6:58. It's like Acer had to follow a mandate to make this system one of the thinnest and lightest, then said wait a minute, we can't ship a laptop that lasts less than four hours. The extended battery feels like an afterthought, one that it easily lost and less sturdy than if they had simply added a couple of millimeters to the system's thickness.

And there's the rub: If the Acer Aspire S7-191-6640 had been a few millimeters thicker with a larger capacity battery and the same 2.63 pound weight, it might have given serious competition to the Editors' Choice Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A-BHI5T. The Asus UX31A-BHI5T has a larger screen and includes a mini-VGA-to-VGA adapter, so it's better suited to corridor dwellers than road warriors, but otherwise the systems are similar in specs, capabilities, and pricing. The S7-191-6640 is just a touch better for the road warrior, but it's not enough for a clear-cut victory.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Acer Aspire S7-191-6640 with several other laptops side by side.

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Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (Xbox 360)

Everything old is new again. The entertainment industry has proven that mantra time and time again as film, television, and music continually tap nostalgia for inspiration. The relatively young video game industry recently dipped into that well, with the likes of Capcom's Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10, retro-themed PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 titles designed to mimic the Blue Bomber's 8-bit NES adventures. Several other titles reveled in a similar retro video game aesthetic, but very few tapped the overall retro feel of the decade that spawned video game classics: the 1980s. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is one. It takes 2012's popular Far Cry 3?title and filters it through a '80s vision of the future, complete with neon, dark synth music, and exciting gunplay. It's a smaller game than Far Cry 3, but this downloadable PC, PlayStation 3?, and Xbox 360?title is the better game.

Welcome to the Party, Pal
Blood Dragon isn't a mere standalone Far Cry 3 expansion; it's a celebration of '80s action silliness. Pseudo action star and #1 James Cameron go-to guy Michael Biehn (Aliens, Terminator, The Abyss) lends his gruff voice to Sgt. Rex "Power" Colt, a cybernetic commando who battles the evil Omega Force army in a post-apocalyptic world where mutants and dinosaur-like Blood Dragons roam. Yes, it's '80s cheese, but well-done '80s cheese, highlighted by homages to Predator, Terminator, and other testosterone-filled flicks from the decade of decadence.

At its core, Blood Dragon plays very much like Far Cry 3 with its tight first-person shooter mechanics, ziplines, collectibles, dangerous animals, multitude of side-missions, garrisons (the game's version of outposts), and open world (though on a much smaller scale). But it's the game's playful adherence to old school action movie clich?s that give Blood Dragon its own footing. The "futuristic" year of 2007?as envisioned from a decidedly '80s point of view?recalls elements from our own real-world '80s with its cold war fears, and big, dumb action movies. The latter, naturally, receives the most spotlight.

Got No Time to Bleed
Sgt. Rex "Power" Colt starts his mission armed to the teeth with a shotgun, pistol, grenade stash, and other weapons that let you ventilate enemy troops with well-placed shots. It's a potent arsenal that only gets better as you loot corpses for ammo and cash.

Money lets you purchase add-ons like silencers and laser scopes from designated areas within garrisons. The carnage you unleash over the course of the game earns CP (Cyber Points) that as XP (experience points) which level up Sgt. Colt with increased health, better accuracy, and other traits. Unfortunately, Blood Dragon doesn't let you select abilities; you automatically gain new ones after reaching certain plateaus. Some may not find that a fault, but I would've loved to dictate how my cyber-commando functions.

As you become more powerful, your ability to take down hordes of Omega Force warriors becomes increasingly effective and fun. In fact, Blood Dragon keeps tally of your accuracy, efficiency from cover, stealth kills, chain kills, and more. The game's tutorial, thankfully, gives you a rundown of the basics, though Sgt. Colt?in a bit of meta-commentary on the game playing experience?constantly gripes that he just wants to kill.

You're a Funny Guy, Sully
Environments are fittingly dark, with Tron-like splashes of blue, orange, and green neon. As a result, the world carries a weighty feel that's given levity by a handful of Arnold-worthy one-liners and hilarious cut scenes that recall the limited color schemes and animations of Sega CD and TurboGrafx-16 titles. The jokes, however, sometimes fall flat. For example, there's a button that causes Sgt. Colt to flip the bird when pressed. That felt less '80s cool, and more immature junior high school student. At other times, some of the dialogue seemed nothing but an obvious set up for a Schwarzeneggeresque one-liner.

Still, Blood Dragon redeems itself in other ways. Omega Force's cyber-troops speak with hilarious computerized vocals, and the screen tears with VHS-like tracking effects when explosions or player death occurs. The attention to '80s ridiculousness is obviously handled by a team with sincere love for the era.

Nothing symbolizes the game's grasp on the wacky than the eponymous Blood Dragons, neon-colored dinosaurs that fire lasers from their eyes. They roam the lands between garrisons and prove quite lethal combatants should you rush encounter one without a sound strategy. Their appetites for cybernetic hearts, however, make them tools in combating the enemy. For example, the tickers you collect from fallen enemies can be tossed into a garrison's entry, which attracts nearby Blood Dragons who rush into the base for a meal. Laughter quickly ensued as I sat upon a hilltop and watched Omega Force members defend themselves with laser rifle from a rampaging dinosaur who shot lasers from his eyes.

Gonna Have Me Some Fun!
Ubisoft must be commended for taking the Far Cry series in this radically different direction. In a gaming industry populated by titles that takes themselves far too seriously (for example, the original Far Cry 3), it's good to see that there's still a place for the goofy.

Game developers have a long history of using of using '80s action movies for inspiration?the original NES Contra has not too subtle Stallone- and Schwarzenegger-based characters that fight Xenomorph-like aliens. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, likewise, wears its inspirations on its sleeve. At times the dialogue forced and the bird-flipping comes off as too Duke Nukem-like, but Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon's old school strengths outweigh its few weakness.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/E-C1gLAamkE/0,2817,2418327,00.asp

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Farrah Abraham Pleads Not Guilty to DUI

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/farrah-abraham-pleads-not-guilty-to-dui/

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Lawyer: Former ricin suspect's home is unlivable

OXFORD, Miss. (AP) ? A Mississippi man's house is uninhabitable after investigators searched it but failed to find evidence of the deadly poison ricin, a lawyer said Monday, arguing that the government should repair the home.

Kevin Curtis was once charged in the mailing of poisoned letters to President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and a Mississippi judge, but the charges were later dropped. The investigation shifted last week to another man who had a falling out with Curtis, and that suspect appeared in court Monday on a charge of making ricin.

Curtis' lawyer, Christi McCoy, has sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams demanding that Curtis be provided temporary housing and the government repair his Corinth, Miss., home and possessions. She also wants the government to pay his legal bills.

"To be specific, Mr. Curtis' home is uninhabitable. I have seen a lot of post search residences but this one is quite disturbing. The agents removed art from the walls, broke the frames and tore the artwork. Mr. Curtis offered his keys but agents chose to break the lock. Mr. Curtis' garbage was scheduled to be picked up Thursday, the day after he was snatched from his life. A week later, the garbage remains in his home, along with millions of insects it attracted," the letter says.

Late Monday, McCoy said that she and Curtis' other attorney had spoken with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's office and they were told his property will be repaired or replaced.

"We feel like the letter was well-received and we'll be working with the FBI to get all his property returned and get his property repaired," she said.

Though attorneys for Curtis say their client was framed, McCoy believes whoever sent the letters had a primary goal of targeting the public officials. Curtis has said that he feuded with the man now charged in the case, James Everett Dutschke.

"I think Kevin was just an afterthought or a scapegoat," McCoy said.

Some of the language in the letters was similar to posts on Curtis' Facebook page and they were signed, "I am KC and I approve this message." Curtis often used a similar online signoff.

Had damaging Curtis been the point of the scheme, McCoy said she believes that whoever set up her client could have done a better job of implicating him, such as planting evidence at his home.

McCoy said in an interview Monday that she still believes the FBI acted on the best information available at the time, but it's time to make her client whole. The letter said Curtis' life was "ruined."

Curtis, a 45-year-old Elvis impersonator, was arrested on April 17. The charges were dropped six days later and Curtis was released from jail.

A message left seeking comment about McCoy's letter at the federal prosecutor's office in Oxford wasn't immediately returned.

After Curtis was released, the focus turned to Dutschke. In court Monday, a judge ordered that Dutschke be held without bond until a preliminary and detention hearing on Thursday. More details are likely to emerge at that hearing, when prosecutors have to show they have enough evidence to hold him.

Dutschke made a brief appearance wearing an orange jumpsuit with his hands shackled. The 41-year-old suspect said little during his hearing other than answering affirmatively to the judge's questions about whether he understood the charges against him.

Dutschke (pronounced DUHS'-kee) has denied involvement in the mailing of the letters, saying he's a patriot with no grudges against anyone. He has previously run for political office and was known to frequent political rallies in northern Mississippi.

An attorney from the public defender's office appointed to represent Dutschke declined to comment after Monday's hearing. Another attorney of Dutschke's, Lori Nail Basham, said she will continue to represent him in other matters but not the federal case.

Dutschke's house, business and vehicles in Tupelo, Miss., were searched last week, often by crews in hazardous materials suits, and he had been under surveillance.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted. A news release from federal authorities said Dutschke was charged with "knowingly developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent, toxin and delivery system, for use as a weapon, to wit: ricin."

He already had legal problems. Earlier this month, he pleaded not guilty in state court to two child molestation charges involving three girls younger than 16, at least one of whom was a student at his martial arts studio. He also was appealing a conviction on a different charge of indecent exposure. He told The Associated Press last week that his lawyer told him not to comment on those cases.

Earlier in the week, as investigators searched his primary residence in Tupelo, Dutschke told the AP, "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

"I'm a patriotic American. I don't have any grudges against anybody. ... I did not send the letters," Dutschke said.

Dutschke and Curtis were acquainted. Curtis said they had talked about possibly publishing a book on a conspiracy that Curtis says he uncovered about the black-market sale of body parts. But he said they later had a feud.

Curtis's attorney Hal Neilson said the legal team gave authorities a list of people who may have had a reason to hurt Curtis and Dutschke's came up.

The Mississippi judge who received one of the letters, Sadie Holland, is part of a family that has had political skirmishes with Dutschke. Her son, Steve Holland, a Democratic state representative, said his mother encountered Dutschke at a rally in the town of Verona in 2007, when Dutschke ran as a Republican against Steve Holland.

Holland said his mother confronted Dutschke after he made a derogatory speech about the Holland family. She demanded that he apologize, which Holland says he did.

Dutschke's MySpace page has several pictures with him and Wicker, though he's never worked for Wicker's campaign. Republicans in north Mississippi say Dutschke used to frequently show up at GOP events and mingle with people, usually finding a way to get a snapshot of himself with the headliner.

"He would always hand his camera to somebody to get his picture made," longtime Republican Mike Armour of Tupelo said by phone Monday.

A woman described by a neighbor as Dutschke's wife arrived at their home Monday afternoon but covered her face and did not respond to a reporter as she walked from a green minivan into the house.

Rory Key lives just down the street from Dutschke's house. He said Dutschke came to his house while the FBI was searchingthe suspect's home asking for a drink and a snack.

He said the suspect was more upset than nervous. Key said he doesn't believe Dutscke committed the crime. He also said he didn't know him that well because Dustchke kept to himself.

___

Associated Press writer Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson contributed to this report.

___

Follow Mohr at http://twitter.com/holbrookmohr.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-former-ricin-suspects-home-unlivable-205130828.html

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After being hacked on Friday, LivingSocial...

After being hacked on Friday, LivingSocial has changed their hashing algorithm from SHA1 to bcrypt so security will be a little tighter. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VtBIECjg97U/

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Key Egyptian negotiator with IMF quits

CAIRO (Reuters) - A key Egyptian negotiator with the International Monetary Fund said on Sunday he has resigned as first deputy finance minister, in a potential blow to Cairo's prospects of an early IMF deal.

Hany Kadry Dimian has been the crucial point man in Egypt's protracted and so far fruitless negotiations to obtain a $4.8 billion loan needed to help combat a severe economic crisis.

"The only comment I can make for the time being is that yes, my term ends on April 30 according to my resignation, which I submitted in December," Kadry told Reuters by telephone.

"My next move is not decided."

A senior technocrat appointed in 2007, Kadry survived five finance ministers in office since the 2011 uprising that overthrew former autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

Kadry gave no explanation for his decision to quit, first reported on the Egyptian dissident Rebel Economy blog, saying he would say more on Tuesday.

A senior European diplomat said his departure was not a good omen for Egypt's hopes of wrapping up a deal on the long delayed IMF loan next month, as the government has said it aims to do.

Kadry was the one expert in the ministry who fully understood the IMF program and was able to deal with the global lender professionally, the diplomat said.

The daily El-Watan said on its website that Kadry had been under increasing pressure from the ruling Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, and in conflict with Abdallah Shehata, the FJP economic adviser to Finance Minister Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegazy.

Separately, the head of Egypt's bourse, Mohamed Omran, told Prime Minister Hisham Kandil he would like to leave his position at the end of his term on July 1, the state news agency MENA reported, citing an unnamed official stock exchange source.

The report did not give a reason for Omran's request, but said he had told the prime minister in August he wanted to leave the post. Kandil had asked him to stay until the end of his term, MENA said.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Dziadosz; Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/key-egyptian-negotiator-imf-quits-191627035.html

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Boston suspects' father postpones trip to US

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) ? The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Sunday that he has postponed a trip from Russia to the United States because of poor health.

"I am really sick," Anzor Tsarnaev, 46, told The Associated Press. He said his blood pressure had spiked to dangerous levels.

Tsarnaev said at a news conference Thursday that he planned to leave that day or the next for the U.S. with the hope of seeing his younger son, who is under arrest, and burying his elder son, who was killed. His family, however, indicated later Thursday that the trip could be pushed back because he was not feeling well.

Tsarnaev confirmed on Sunday that he is staying in Chechnya, a province in southern Russia, but did not specify whether he was hospitalized. He is an ethnic Chechen and has relatives in Chechnya, although he and his family spent little time in Chechnya or anywhere else in Russia before moving to the U.S. a decade ago.

He and the suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, returned to Russia last year and settled in Makhachkala, the capital of neighboring Dagestan, where Tsarnaeva's relatives live.

During the past week, they were both questioned extensively by U.S. investigators who had traveled to Makhachkala from Moscow. They also were besieged by journalists who staked out their home.

Tsarnaev's family said last week that he intended to get to the U.S. by flying from Grozny, the Chechen capital, to Moscow. He and Tsarnaeva left Dagestan on Friday, but their whereabouts were unclear.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-suspects-father-postpones-trip-us-124041600.html

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