AOL Radio

AOL, announced late last year that its AOL Radio streaming music would be powered by Slacker Radio (Free, 4.5 stars) in order to improve the music listening experience. The new "AOL Radio powered by Slacker" combines several of our favorite Slacker features while keeping several legacy America Online music aspects, and adds an eye-catching new interface that borrows elements from the Slacker iPad app (Free, 4 stars). AOL may have lost some identity in the move, but the tradeoff results in an all around better service?even better than Slacker Radio's own in some ways.

Don't think that AOL Radio's Slacker Radio implementation means that you can't listen to tunes at Slacker.com?you most certainly can. There are, however, subtle difference between the AOL Radio and Slacker Radio experiences that may make you prefer one over the other. Both are very good, but both finish just behind Spotify (Free, 4.5 stars), the current Editors' Choice pick for paid streaming music services.

Fresh, New Look
The first thing you'll notice when you land on the page is the revamped design. The old and cluttered AOL Radio interface is replaced with a gray and white color scheme and a layout that resembles the Slacker Radio iPad app. The top of the screen features a station's name in the upper-left corner; the upper-right has Facebook "like" and posting options, and a drop-down box for tinkering with options (you can also add Twitter compatibility in account settings). A column on the left houses the various Slacker Radio genres (ranging from Rock to Spiritual to Comedy), as well as custom stations. A history bar lets you quickly see previously played tracks at a glance?excellent if you caught the tail end of a song and want to discover its title or artist.

Package Plans
AOL Radio offers the same packages as Slacker Radio; in fact, you can no longer listen to music without signing up for an AOL account. AOL Radio offers three listening plans for music fans. With the free, basic plan you can skip a maximum of six songs per hour and must listen to audio advertisements. Those ads may prove a minor annoyance to free account holders, but they're nothing compared to the ads that Spotify serve, which sometimes appear?mid-song.

The Slacker, err, AOL Radio Experience
The new AOL Radio is Slacker Radio with a few tweaks. If you have a Slacker Radio account, you also have an AOL Radio account. When I visited the site, I was automatically logged in with my Slacker Radio credentials. You can dive into the deep catalog by selecting one of more than two dozen pre-made stations or keying in an artist or song title into the search engine. If you go the search engine route, AOL Radio will cull a tightly-programmed station. I fine-tuned the experience by clicking the "Ban" icon to prevent a song from playing; clicking the heart-shaped "Favorite" icon gives a song extra weight, causing Slacker to play it more frequently. Clicking "My Stations" loaded my custom station without a hitch. Clicking the "Afropunk" play button launched my created station, sending Lenny Kravitz' "Always on the Run" to my ears.

AOL Radio differs from Slacker Radio in a few ways that may not be obvious to casual users. You can't, skip to the beginning of a track (effectively rewinding it), create playlists (though you can listen to playlists created on Slacker Radio's page), or shuffle tracks. Slacker Radio diehards may consider these deal-breakers that keep them returning to Slacker.com, but others may not notice the omissions.

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Visitor Day May 9th | BNI Santa Rosa, CA | Business Networking

We have openings for new members! We?re planning a special Visitors Day on May 9th to welcome anyone who is interested in becoming part of our business networking ?group.

Join us to see how business networking can help grow your businesses in the company of the Grapevine Networking Professionals.? Whether you have attended a BNI meeting before or not, you will notice what we?re known for when you join us ? warmth, good humor and professionalism.

If you are interested in attending Visitors Day, please contact someone on our?Leadership Team?so we can reserve a place for you. More details coming soon!

We?re targeting business owners in the following professions:

    • Local bank or credit union
    • Florist
    • Carpet Cleaner
    • Photographer
    • IT/Computer Tech Support
    • Car Salesperson
    • Plumber
    • Window Cleaner

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Petrino, mistress exchanged 100s of calls, texts

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) ? Former Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino went out of his way to refer to his relationship with Jessica Dorrell in the past tense when he was put on paid leave.

Cellphone records show the two remained in near-daily contact before and after the motorcycle accident that led to his firing.

Petrino and Dorrell exchanged more than 4,300 text messages and nearly 300 phone calls over the past seven months ? on game days, before dawn and even as the police report that hastened his downfall was being released to the public, according to a review of his business cellphone records by The Associated Press.

The messages, among some 300 pages of records released Wednesday under a Freedom of Information Act request, appear to include picture and video files, though there was no way to verify the content. But the records clearly show a married father of four in frequent contact with Dorrell, a 25-year-old former Razorbacks volleyball player.

Petrino was fired Tuesday night for failing to disclose his relationship with Dorrell, whom he hired last month without disclosing his conflict of interest or the fact he had once paid her $20,000.

Athletic director Jeff Long said he had determined their relationship had been ongoing for a "significant" amount of time, but he did not say for how long.

The phone records show that Petrino remained in close contact with Dorrell following the April 1 motorcycle accident in which Petrino suffered four broken ribs, a cracked neck vertebra and scrapes and bruises

That day, Petrino and Dorrell went for a motorcycle ride on a two-lane highway southeast of Fayetteville and skidded off the road. Petrino and Dorrell talked for 16 minutes earlier that day before the crash at 6:45 p.m., and they also had a 22-minute conversation the following day ? while Petrino was apparently still in the hospital recovering.

Petrino's accident report was disclosed by state police on April 5, and the two talked 11 times that day. That included a pair of 2-minute calls around 3:30 p.m., when police were releasing the report that for the first time exposed her presence at the accident.

Later that evening, as questions swirled about his future at Arkansas, Petrino exchanged four calls with his agent, Russ Campbell, totaling 10 minutes.

The cellphone records show Petrino and Dorrell were in contact at least as far back as Sept. 12. The university provided nearly seven months of Petrino's business cellphone records, and that is the first date listed.

Among the findings:

Petrino exchanged 91 texts with Dorrell on Sept. 13 and 84 texts with her over five hours on Oct. 28, the day before a game at Vanderbilt.

On Oct. 17, the two swapped 73 text messages, and on four days in a row in the week before a loss to eventual national champion Alabama, Petrino called Dorrell early ? at 5:52 a.m., 6:35 a.m., 5:49 a.m. and 7:55 a.m.

The day Arkansas beat Troy, the two exchanged 70 texts. They exchanged 26 texts the day Arkansas beat Mississippi State and four following the Razorbacks' loss to LSU on Nov. 25.

Dorrell sent Petrino a text during Arkansas' Cotton Bowl win over Kansas State, though the coach didn't reply until the following day.

The 51-year-old Petrino was earning an average annual salary of $3.5 million and he had built Arkansas into a national power, including a 21-5 record over the past two seasons and a No. 5 ranking in last season's final AP poll. He was expected to lead the Hogs on a national title run next season, but his career was effectively ended the day of the accident.

Petrino didn't disclose Dorrell's presence on the ride to Long until 20 minutes before the police report was released to the public. The records show Petrino's six-minute call to Long at 3:11 p.m., during which the coach first told Long of his inappropriate relationship with Dorrell and her presence at the accident. He was on the phone with her a few minutes later.

Petrino has issued a lengthy apology and said he was focused on trying to make amends to his family.

Long, meanwhile, is now a full day into his search for a new coach. Late Wednesday, he tweeted: "At this time I have not spoken to anyone about the Head Coaching position."

Former Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett, now with the New England Patriots, tweeted his support for Garrick McGee. The former Razorbacks offensive coordinator was hired as the head coach at UAB in December after four years in Fayetteville.

"GM only coach Ark should look at if they wanna win now," Mallett wrote. "I'm talkin about Garrick McGee. He can win at Arkansas."

Mallett made clear he was not referring to Gus Malzahn, the former offensive coordinator at Arkansas, Tulsa and Auburn who took the head coaching job at Arkansas State in December.

"That would be a mistake," Mallett tweeted.

___

Associated Press writers Chuck Bartels, Jeannie Nuss, Allen Reed and Andrew DeMillo contributed to this report from Little Rock, Ark.

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OCZ says its Indilinx controller is actually built by Marvell, but has custom firmware

OCZ still using Marvell controllers
OCZ received stacks of praise following its brave switch to in-house Indilinx-branded controllers, which have delivered solid performance in both the Octane and Vertex 4 SSDs. However, the company has now confirmed to AnandTech that its Indilinx Everest 1 and 2 controllers are actually still based on Marvell products, with a little overclocking on the side, and it hasn't yet implemented its own hardware. That would explain why the latest SSDs are so closely on a par with other Marvell-powered drives, like the Crucial's m4 and Intel's 520. But if it sounds like the brightest kid in the class just admitted to copying some other student's homework, then we should probably all chill out: after all, OCZ never made any precise claims about Everest's provenance in the first place. Besides, one of the most important aspects of a solid state drive is its firmware and OCZ insists that's totally home-cooked. The news here is that we still haven't seen what OCZ is fully capable of following its Indilinx acquisition.

OCZ says its Indilinx controller is actually built by Marvell, but has custom firmware originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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News Guide: Key quotes, questions in Trayvon case

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman has been arrested and is charged with second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26.

Special prosecutor Angela Corey announced the charge at a news conference Wednesday, seven weeks after the killing.

Trayvon Martin's parents, civil rights leaders and other people have portrayed the case as racially charged, saying the 28-year-old Zimmerman would have been arrested immediately had he been black and the victim white. Martin was black.

Some explanations, key quotes, and questions and answers in the case:

___

CHARGES EXPLAINED:

Second-degree murder means a killing that was not premeditated but resulted instead from an "imminently dangerous act" that showed a "depraved" lack of regard for human life.

THE PROSECUTOR'S CHALLENGE:

Under Florida's "stand your ground" law, which gives people wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat during a fight, Corey must first prove to a judge that Zimmerman wasn't defending himself when he killed Trayvon Martin. Only then can she take the case to a jury, in front of which she will face a high legal burden to prove that the killing wasn't in self-defense.

KEY QUOTES:

?Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, of Zimmerman: "The question I would really like to ask him is, if he could look into Trayvon's eyes and see how innocent he was, would he have then pulled the trigger? Or would he have just let him go on home?"

?Zimmerman's new lawyer, Mark O'Mara: "He is troubled by everything that has happened. I cannot imagine living in George Zimmerman's shoes for the past number of weeks. Because he has been at the focus of a lot of anger, and maybe confusion and maybe some hatred and that has to be difficult. ... I'm expecting a lot of work and hopefully justice in the end."

?O'Mara on Zimmerman: "I'm not concerned about his mental well-being."

?Special prosecutor Angela Corey: "We do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition."

?Stacy Davis, who is black, reacting to Zimmerman's arrest: "It's not a black or white thing for me. It's a right or wrong thing. He needed to be arrested. I'm happy because maybe that boy (Martin) can get some rest."

?George Zimmerman to a 911 dispatcher the night of the shooting: "This guy looks like he is up to no good ? he is on drugs or something."

?President Barack Obama, earlier in the case: "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."

___

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Q: WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR ZIMMERMAN TO BE ARRESTED?

A: Special prosecutor Angela Corey says that probable cause had to be determined before authorities could arrest Zimmerman. She said there was only a slight delay, when she took it over from the previous prosecutor, who recused himself from the case.

Zimmerman told police he acted in self-defense after Martin pursued and attacked him. Florida is among 21 states with the "stand your ground law," which allows police on the scene to decide whether they believe the self-defense claim.

In many cases, the officers make an arrest and leave it to the courts to work out whether the deadly force is justified. In this case, however, police have said they are confident they did the right thing by not charging Zimmerman.

Q: ON WHAT EVIDENCE IS THE PROSECUTOR BASING THE CHARGE OF SECOND-DEGREE MURDER?

A: Corey did not disclose how she arrived at the charge, saying that was information to be revealed in court.

Q: WHAT'S NEXT?

A: Zimmerman will appear in court within 24 hours, Corey said.

Q: DOES ZIMMERMAN HAVE LEGAL COUNSEL?

A: Yes, Mark O'Mara of Orlando, who became Zimmerman's new attorney after his former lawyers announced Tuesday that they were dropping the case. They said they couldn't keep representing Zimmerman because he had stopped communicating with them.

Q: HOW WILL ZIMMERMAN PLEAD?

A: Not guilty, O'Mara says.

Q: WHAT HAPPENED?

A: Martin, 17, was shot and killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest Feb. 26 during a confrontation with Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer in a gated community of townhomes in Sanford, Fla., about 20 miles northeast of Orlando.

Zimmerman was driving through the neighborhood when he spotted Martin, who was unarmed and walking to the home of his father's fiancee. She lived in the same gated community as Zimmerman.

Martin was returning from a trip to the convenience store with an iced tea and a bag of Skittles. It was raining, and Martin was walking with the hood of his sweat shirt pulled over his head. He talked to his girlfriend on a cellphone moments before the shooting, according to Martin's family's attorney.

Q: WHAT IS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S SIDE OF THE STORY?

A: On his website, therealgeorgezimmerman.com, Zimmerman has described the shooting as "a life altering event" but he says he can't go into details about what happened.

"As a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life," he said on the site.

Zimmerman told police he spotted Martin as he was driving through his neighborhood and called 911 to report a suspicious person.

He said the teen had his hand in his waistband and was walking around looking at homes.

There had been several break-ins in the community in the past year, including one in which burglars took a TV and laptops.

A dispatcher told Zimmerman he didn't need to follow Martin after Zimmerman got out of his truck and started pursuing the teen.

Zimmerman told police he lost sight of the teenager and was walking back to his vehicle when he was attacked. He and Martin fought, according to witnesses. Zimmerman said Martin punched him in the nose and slammed his head against the ground.

At some point, Zimmerman pulled a gun and shot Martin.

Police said Zimmerman was bleeding from his nose and the back of his head. He told police he had yelled out for help before he shot Martin.

Q: WHAT IS THE MARTIN FAMILY'S SIDE OF THE STORY?

A: Much of Martin's side of the story comes from a cellphone conversation he had with his girlfriend moments before the shooting. She was interviewed by the family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, and he released much of what she said to the news media. She has not been identified.

In the interview, she said Trayvon Martin told her that he was being followed.

"She says: 'Run.' He says, 'I'm not going to run, I'm just going to walk fast,'" Crump said, quoting the girl.

The girl later heard Martin say, "Why are you following me?" Another man asked, "What are you doing around here?" Crump said.

After Martin encountered Zimmerman, the girl thinks she heard a scuffle "because his voice changes like something interrupted his speech," Crump said. The phone call ended before the girl heard any gunshots.

Martin's parents said their son made the pleas for help that witnesses heard.

Q: WHAT IS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S RACIAL AND ETHNIC BACKGROUND?

A: Zimmerman's father is white, and his mother is Hispanic of Peruvian descent.

Q: WHERE IS GEORGE ZIMMERMAN?

A: Zimmerman is in jail in Sanford.

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Mac infection rate down, says security firm

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The number of Macs infected by the Flashback malware has gone down by more than half, from 550,000 to 600,000 computers last week to 270,000 in the last 24 hours, Symantec said Wednesday.

It could be that word about the malware and available fixes spread more quickly in recent days than the?malware itself -- which can?be used by criminals to steal personal information, including passwords. On April 6, Flashback was estimated to have infected as many as 600,000 Macs, Symantec said:

"This figure has decreased significantly since then and from our sinkhole data, we have estimated that the number of computers infected with this threat in the last 24 hours is in the region of 270,000, down from 380,000. We will keep a close eye on the amount of these infections over the coming weeks."

Security software maker Intego said as of last Thursday, "all of the servers that were providing the Flashback malware seem to be off-line; this is likely to do the activities of the many security companies that have worked on exposing this malware and the servers it uses. However, the command and control servers are still active, so those Macs that are infected are still vulnerable to data theft and more."

Some have criticized Apple for not getting a malware fix out sooner; Flashback has been around since late last year. "It has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a social-engineering scam trying to pass off as a fake Flash update using digital certificates purporting to come from Apple," said Symantec.

Last week, Apple issued security patches to address Flashback. Mac users can get Apple's patch by clicking on Software Update in the Apple menu, or do a?manual security update?from Apple's website.

Sophos Security's Paul Ducklin gave Apple credit and a "huzzah!" for breaking its pattern of saying little or nothing about malware by releasing an Apple?Knowledge Base article April 10 in which it "apparently for the very first time - talked about a security problem before it had all its threat response ducks in a row," Ducklin wrote on Sophos' blog. Apple said in addition to offering a security patch, it is "developing software that will detect and remove the Flashback malware."

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, security firm F-Secure released a free tool that can detect and remove Flashback?if you don't want to wait for Apple's.

Symantec also released charts showing where Flashback is most prevalent -- the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom lead that chart -- and the IP addresses that are being used to spread Flashback. Both ?charts are below.?

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on?Facebook,?and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

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Supreme Court makes ruling on genetic patents | Rockville Civil ...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., was recently ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider a decision it made in July 2011. According to the appeals court, biotechnology company Myriad Genetics was allowed to hold patents on two human genes used to test individuals for breast and ovarian cancer.

The two genes at the center of the controversy are BRCA 1 and BRCA 2. In order to test individuals for both types of cancer, Myriad Genetics uses a test that examines extracted DNA for mutated genes. This allows the company to determine if individuals are at a heightened risk for either of the cancers.

A decision made by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in March 2010 disallowed the company from patenting the genes because they were considered, legally, laws of nature. The appeals court's ruling overturned this, based on the concept that the company tests for specific chemical forms of the two genes, not the genes as they appear naturally.

This argument was shot down by the Supreme Court. According to reports, patents have been limited by the Supreme Court in recent years. Patents covering abstract ideas, natural phenomena and laws of nature have been invalidated by the Supreme Court several times. In a similar case, the Supreme Court recently ruled that another company using gene-related patents to perform medical tests could not hold those patents.

Opponents of the patents are excited by ruling. A staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said that companies should not be allowed to patent something as natural as DNA. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against Myriad in 2009, seeking to have the patents invalidated.

Source: Chemical and Engineering News, "Supreme Court Orders Review Of Gene Patents," Glenn Hess, Mar. 27, 2012

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Bump?s Mini-Pivot: Photo-Sharing From Your Phone By Bumping With Your Keyboard

Screen shot 2012-04-11 at 17.01.28Bump, the mobile sharing app that lets users exchange photos and information by bumping their phones together, is now taking on a new device: the computer keyboard. And it appears to also be taking on a new frontier, cloud-based photo-sharing. A new, very simple service that the company is currently running in beta lets someone using the app select a photo on their phone, bump their space bar with the phone, and then see the image magically appear on the screen. From there, a user can (so far) keep it in the Bump cloud, download it to their computer, post it to Facebook or send someone a link.

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