Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive and founder of investment firm The Social+Capital Partnership, said today that the tech world should be "utterly ashamed," because "we are at an absolute minimum in terms of things that are being started." Palihapitiya was interviewed on-stage at our Disrupt NY conference. He argued that in contrast to past decades, where tech entrepreneurs were inventing silicon chips, putting computers on every desktop, or wiring the world, we're now "rehashing ideas from 2003." He didn't name a specific company, but when Palihapitiya talked disdainfully about an instant messaging app that allows you to send photos of everything from an apple orchard to your genitalia, and that the message disappears after a short period of time, it's not too hard to decipher who he's talking about.
Today at Disrupt NY 2013, Benchmark partner Bill Gurley shared an interesting fact about Uber. “Uber is growing faster than eBay did,” Gurley said. In 1997, Benchmark invested $6.7 million in eBay. It was worth more than $5 billion less than two years later. Benchmark is also an investor in Uber. “Uber is probably the fastest growing company that we?ve ever had,” Gurley said. He insisted a lot on the quality of the product. If a company builds a good product, it will grow organically. Benchmark took part in Uber’s Series A and Series B rounds of respectively $11 million and $37 million. Gurley seemed very satisfied with this investment and only had good things to say about the car company. “The product is so good, there is no one spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing,” Gurley said. eBay and Uber are both consumer companies that have reached a lot of customers in a very short time. It contrasts a lot with his comments about the past failures of the tech industry. “On the consumer side, the risk is what there was in the late 1990s, with too much money spent on marketing,” Gurley said. A few days ago, New York finally decided that e-hail services would be able to operate in the city. Last year Uber launched UberX in New York, its e-hailing service on top of regular taxis. But the company had to kill its service because of legislation issues. Uber will now be able to enter the market again, with competition from Hailo, TaxiMagic and others. On Twitter, Uber investor Sherwin Pishevar added: I'd been hesitant to publicly say this re: @Uber but since @bgurley said it, I can confirm @Uber is fastest growing company I've ever seen.— Shervin Pishevar (@shervin) April 29, 2013 And check out the video of Gurley on stage below:
DHAKA (Reuters) - The owner of a factory building that collapsed in Bangladesh killing hundreds of garment workers was arrested on Sunday trying to flee to India, police said, as fears grew that the death toll could rise sharply with as many as 900 still missing.
Mohammed Sohel Rana, a leader of the ruling Awami League's youth front, was arrested by the elite Rapid Action Battalion in the Bangladesh border town of Benapole, Dhaka District Police Chief Habibur Rahman told Reuters.
Speaking near the site of the wreckage of Rana Plaza, which housed several factories making low-cost garments for Western retailers, junior minister for local government Jahangir Kabir Nanak told reporters that Rana would be brought to Dhaka by helicopter.
Authorities put the latest death toll at 372, four days after the country's worst-ever industrial accident.
Four people were pulled out alive on Sunday and rescuers were working frantically to save several others trapped under the mound of broken concrete and metal, fire services deputy director Mizanur Rahman said.
"The chances of finding people alive are dimming, so we have to step up our rescue operation to save any valuable life we can," said Major General Chowdhury Hassan Sohrawardi, coordinator of the operation at the site.
About 2,500 people have been rescued from the wrecked building in the commercial suburb of Savar, about 30 km (20 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.
Officials said the eight-storey complex had been built on spongy ground without the correct permits, and more than 3,000 workers - mainly young women - entered the building on Wednesday morning despite warnings that it was structurally unsafe.
Police said one factory owner gave himself up following the detention of two plant bosses and two engineers the day before.
Local news reports said the mother of building owner Rana, who was not being held, died of a heart attack on Saturday evening.
Anger over the disaster has sparked days of protests and clashes, with police using tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to quell demonstrators who set cars ablaze. On Sunday, however, the roads were quiet.
The main opposition, joining forces with an alliance of leftist parties which is part of the ruling coalition, called for a national strike on May 2 in protest over the incident.
BUILT ON A FILLED-IN POND
Wednesday's collapse was the third major industrial incident in five months in Bangladesh, the second-largest exporter of garments in the world behind China. In November, a fire at the Tazreen Fashion factory in a suburb of Dhaka killed 112 people.
Such incidents have raised serious questions about worker safety and low wages, and could taint the reputation of the poor South Asian country, which relies on garments for 80 percent of its exports. The industry employs about 3.6 million people, most of them women, some of whom earn as little as $38 a month.
Emdadul Islam, chief engineer of the state-run Capital Development Authority (CDA), said on Friday that the owner of the building had not received the proper construction consent, obtaining a permit for a five-storey building from the local municipality, which did not have the authority to grant it.
Furthermore, another three storeys had been added illegally, he said. "Savar is not an industrial zone, and for that reason no factory can be housed in Rana Plaza," Islam told Reuters.
Islam said the building had been erected on the site of a pond filled in with sand and earth, weakening the foundations.
Since the disaster, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has asked factory owners to produce building designs by July in a bid to improve safety.
(Writing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
YOU cannot legislate a society of law and order into existence. Neither can you cause it by fiat. You build. Law and order are the conditions for all other socio-economic activities of man,? wrote Alozie Ogugbuaja, in his controversial memo on ?The People?s Police?.
Indeed, beyond the legacy projects, one outstanding achievement of great value by Governor Theodore Orji of AbiaState is the building of a new society of law and order. Orji?s Abia is standing tall in the federation as a model state in terms of law and order and social harmony. And this was not legislated into existence but a product of committed and pragmatic action.
In the midst of a country gripped by violence, where bloodshed either by accident or by deliberate? organised crime? make the headlines everyday in the papers, Abia State has remained an isolated case of a sort of haven on earth? where peace reigns and where residents sleep with their doors wide open. And, I emphasise again, this did not come by fiat or by providence but a product of judicious and strategic governance. Governor Orji toiled day and night, tasked his brain and mind to attain this state for his people.
From Umuahia, the state capital, to Aba, the business hub and to the villages and communities, it is a very commendable story of a society at peace with itself. The Governor succeeded in clamping down all manners of social deviancy, from street gangsterism, city mugging, and armed banditry to the menace of kidnapping.? Today, while the neighbouring states are still battling with the scourge of violent crimes, Orji has moved ahead to consolidate his vision of legacy projects. The Governor has even moved beyond Abia to invest energy on a programme of regional integration, with the argument of harnessing the regional abundances which were the glories of those regions.
If you realise that the first primary duty of government is the maintenance of law and order and the greatest achievement of any leader can make is the sustenance of peace in the land, then you would appreciate the sacrifice of Orji in building an Abia of peace and harmony. This is why I argue that societal peace which is a product of law and order is a cardinal human need. But, unfortunately, Abraham Maslow, the legendary psychologist missed this point in his theory of the hierarchy of human need.
For Governor Orji, peace and an atmosphere of law and order are the very ultimate of human need. Anybody who has experienced war like the Igbos of the Biafran generation would agree with Orji. In a state of anarchy, people abandon their shelter to find refuge in the cold corners of the bush. Nobody talks about the need for social acceptance or recognition. Nobody remembers the desire for comfort or pleasure. Self-actualisation becomes an illusion. The only drive and need become the protection and preservation of life.
It is on the basis of the importance of law and order and a sustainable atmosphere of peace that one must give kudos to the dynamic Governor of Abia for his vision of building a new society of peace out of the wreckage of the past. Orji inherited a society hanging precariously on the precipice of anarchy. He inherited an Abia where kidnappers and other sundry criminals were the lords of the manor.? But, today, all these anomalies have become a thing of the past.
At a time of global anarchy when violence has been let loose on earth and blood has dented our lands, peace becomes a treasured diamond. Law and order becomes an oasis for a hapless wanderer. In Nigeria particularly, it has been a regime of violence. From kidnapping in the South-South and South East, Boko Haram in the North, ethnic cleansing in the Plateau, armed banditry in the West, Nigeria has been a state under siege. But, in the midst of this upheaval, Orji?s Abia has been an oasis of sanity. With a sincere sense of purpose, he sanitised the streets of Aba and Umuahia and staged an intensive fight against insecurity in all its manifestations.
But, the ????????????? Black American civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, once observed that: ?Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.?? The sad news of kidnapping emanating from neighbouring states and other sundry criminal activities and spate of insecurity still reigning in some parts of the region are obviously a threat to the peace of Abia. So also is the regime of bloodbath in the entire Nigeria.? They all constitute a threat to the ideal of law and order.
Thus, today, Orji is audaciously saying after the legendary Ghanaian leader, Kwame Nkrumah, that the liberation of Abia is meaningless unless it is linked up to the total liberation of the Nigeria. Orji is speaking to? the nation,? that the revolution he? orchestrated in Abia that has progressively expanded the frontiers of existence and uplifted the lives of the ordinary citizens? will be meaningless unless such? transformation? are? transmuted to other states.? This is precisely the new mandate and the new mission for this visionary leader.
Indeed, the Nigerian federation has a lesson to learn from Abia. The state of Abia today is a proof that law and order is not an utopian dream. Orji has proven beyond doubts that it is realisable even within the context of the limitations of Nigeria.? First, there is a lesson from Orji?s personality which he translated into governance. The Governor gave his heart and soul to the politics of service. The nation must draw from the workable mechanisms which Abia deployed in tackling insecurity and which has been very successful.? For technical reasons, security strategies are not discussed in the open which is why I suggest that Governor Orji must be the consultant for this national quest.
As the national dialogue and negotiation for peace and progress, Orji would become the inspiration for the affirmation of the possibility of national peace.? For the promoters and advocates, Abia must be the new signage for the campaign for a new Nigeria of peaceful co-existence.
Mr. ? GODWIN ADINDU, a social critic, wrote from Aba, Abia State.
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In this image taken from a video, an undated family photo provided by Patimat Suleimanova, the aunt of USA Boston bomb suspects, shows Anzor Tsarnaev left, Zubeidat Tsarnaev holding Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Anzor's brother Mukhammad Tsarnaev. Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaev is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son. In another, she was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, U.S. officials said. (AP Photo/Patimat Suleimanova)
In this image taken from a video, an undated family photo provided by Patimat Suleimanova, the aunt of USA Boston bomb suspects, shows Anzor Tsarnaev left, Zubeidat Tsarnaev holding Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Anzor's brother Mukhammad Tsarnaev. Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaev is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son. In another, she was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, U.S. officials said. (AP Photo/Patimat Suleimanova)
FILE - This April 25, 2013 file photo shows the mother of the two Boston bombing suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, left, speaking at a news conference in Makhachkala, the southern Russian province of Dagestan. Two government officials tell The Associated Press that U.S. intelligence agencies added the Boston bombing suspects' mother to a federal terrorism database about 18 months before the attack. At right is her sister-in-law Maryam. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev, File)
BOSTON (AP) ? In photos of her as a younger woman, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva wears a low-cut blouse and has her hair teased like a 1980s rock star. After she arrived in the U.S. from Russia in 2002, she went to beauty school and did facials at a suburban day spa.
But in recent years, people noticed a change. She began wearing a hijab and cited conspiracy theories about 9/11 being a plot against Muslims.
Now known as the angry and grieving mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tsarnaeva is drawing increased attention after federal officials say Russian authorities intercepted her phone calls, including one in which she vaguely discussed jihad with her elder son. In another, she was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, U.S. officials said.
Tsarnaeva insists there is no mystery. She's no terrorist, just someone who found a deeper spirituality. She insists her sons ? Tamerlan, who was killed in a gunfight with police, and Dzhokhar, who was wounded and captured ? are innocent.
"It's all lies and hypocrisy," she told The Associated Press in Dagestan. "I'm sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I've never been mixed up in any criminal intentions, especially any linked to terrorism."
Amid the scrutiny, Tsarnaeva and her ex-husband, Anzor Tsarnaev, say they have put off the idea of any trip to the U.S. to reclaim their elder son's body or try to visit Dzhokhar in jail. Tsarnaev told the AP on Sunday he was too ill to travel to the U.S. Tsarnaeva faces a 2012 shoplifting charge in a Boston suburb, though it was unclear whether that was a deterrent.
At a news conference in Dagestan with Anzor last week, Tsarnaeva appeared overwhelmed with grief one moment, defiant the next. "They already are talking about that we are terrorists, I am terrorist," she said. "They already want me, him and all of us to look (like) terrorists."
Tsarnaeva arrived in the U.S. in 2002, settling in a working-class section of Cambridge, Mass. With four children, Anzor and Zubeidat qualified for food stamps and were on and off public assistance benefits for years. The large family squeezed itself into a third-floor apartment.
Zubeidat took classes at the Catherine Hinds Institute of Esthetics, before becoming a state-licensed aesthetician. Anzor, who had studied law, fixed cars.
By some accounts, the family was tolerant.
Bethany Smith, a New Yorker who befriended Zubeidat's two daughters, said in an interview with Newsday that when she stayed with the family for a month in 2008 while she looked at colleges, she was welcomed even though she was Christian and had tattoos.
"I had nothing but love over there. They accepted me for who I was," Smith told the newspaper. "Their mother, Zubeidat, she considered me to be a part of the family. She called me her third daughter."
Zubeidat said she and Tamerlan began to turn more deeply into their Muslim faith about five years ago after being influenced by a family friend, named "Misha." The man, whose full name she didn't reveal, impressed her with a religious devotion that was far greater than her own, even though he was an ethnic Armenian who converted to Islam.
"I wasn't praying until he prayed in our house, so I just got really ashamed that I am not praying, being a Muslim, being born Muslim. I am not praying. Misha, who converted, was praying," she said.
By then, she had left her job at the day spa and was giving facials in her apartment. One client, Alyssa Kilzer, noticed the change when Tsarnaeva put on a head scarf before leaving the apartment.
"She had never worn a hijab while working at the spa previously, or inside the house, and I was really surprised," Kilzer wrote in a post on her blog. "She started to refuse to see boys that had gone through puberty, as she had consulted a religious figure and he had told her it was sacrilegious. She was often fasting."
Kilzer wrote that Tsarnaeva was a loving and supportive mother, and she felt sympathy for her plight after the April 15 bombings. But she stopped visiting the family's home for spa treatments in late 2011 or early 2012 when, during one session, she "started quoting a conspiracy theory, telling me that she thought 9/11 was purposefully created by the American government to make America hate Muslims."
"It's real," Tsarnaeva said, according to Kilzer. "My son knows all about it. You can read on the Internet."
In the spring of 2010, Zubeidat's eldest son got married in a ceremony at a Boston mosque that no one in the family had previously attended. Tamerlan and his wife, Katherine Russell, a Rhode Island native and convert from Christianity, now have a child who is about 3 years old.
Zubeidat married into a Chechen family but was an outsider. She is an Avar, from one of the dozens of ethnic groups in Dagestan. Her native village is now a hotbed of an ultraconservative strain of Islam known as Salafism or Wahabbism.
It is unclear whether religious differences fueled tension in their family. Anzor and Zubeidat divorced in 2011.
About the same time, there was a brief FBI investigation into Tamerlan Tsarnaev, prompted by a tip from Russia's security service.
The vague warning from the Russians was that Tamerlan, an amateur boxer in the U.S., was a follower of radical Islam who had changed drastically since 2010. That led the FBI to interview Tamerlan at the family's home in Cambridge. Officials ultimately placed his name, and his mother's name, on various watch lists, but the inquiry was closed in late spring of 2011.
After the bombings, Russian authorities told U.S. investigators they had secretly recorded a phone conversation in which Zubeidat had vaguely discussed jihad with Tamerlan. The Russians also recorded Zubeidat talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.
The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.
Anzor's brother, Ruslan Tsarni, told the AP from his home in Maryland that he believed his former sister-in-law had a "big-time influence" on her older son's growing embrace of his Muslim faith and decision to quit boxing and school.
While Tamerlan was living in Russia for six months in 2012, Zubeidat, who had remained in the U.S., was arrested at a shopping mall in the suburb of Natick, Mass., and accused of trying to shoplift $1,624 worth of women's clothing from a department store.
She failed to appear in court to answer the charges that fall, and instead left the country.
___
Seddon reported from Makhachkala, Russia. Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report from Washington.
LONDON (AP) ? The mood in financial markets was subdued Friday after a surprisingly big fall in Japanese prices and ahead of the first estimate of first-quarter economic growth in the U.S.
At the end of what's been a largely positive week, investors are gearing up for the growth figures. Despite a run of disappointing U.S. economic news, investors are relatively hopeful that the world's largest economy will post annualized growth of a little over 3 percent, well up on the previous quarter's 0.4 percent rate.
"Given the gains seen this week, an element of caution appears to be creeping into investor's mindset after a week of predominantly poor economic data," said Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets.
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.7 percent to 6,400 while Germany's DAX fell the same rate to 7,784. The CAC-40 in France was 1.2 percent lower at 3,794.
Wall Street was poised for a lower opening with both Dow futures and the broader S&P 500 futures down 0.2 percent. How they will actually though will likely hinge on those GDP figures which are due for release an hour before the bell.
The dollar's fortunes over the day will likely hinge on the GDP figures too. Ahead of the release, the euro was up 0.1 percent at $1.3013.
Friday's session has also been dented by the news that prices in Japan are falling at their fastest rate in two years ? deflation is considered a bad thing as it can weigh on economic activity by giving consumers the incentive to hold off make purchases and by keeping a lid on wages. It also raises the relative value of a country's debt and for a country like Japan that's another problem.
The news that consumer prices in Japan fell by 0.9 percent in the year to March highlighted the scale of the challenge facing the Bank of Japan, which has been tasked to get inflation of 2 percent. In its attempt to do so, it announced a massive monetary stimulus package this month. It did not announce any new measures after its latest meeting Friday.
The prospect of more money in Japan has hit the yen hard to the likely benefit of the country's powerhouse exporters. And that's one reason why Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock index has performed so strongly over the past few weeks.
However, the fall in prices weighed on Japanese stocks and gave the Asian session a soft tone. The Nikkei, which in the morning hit its highest intraday level in five years at 13,983.87, fell 0.3 percent to close at 13,884.13. The yen, however, clawed back some ground after the BoJ announcement of unchanged policies. The dollar was 0.8 percent lower at 98.59 yen.
"I think if there is anything to take from today's BoJ policy meeting it is the fact that the BoJ believes it has made all the announcements necessary in order to achieve its more aggressive inflation target," said Derek Halpenny, European head of global markets research at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7 percent to 22,547.71 while South Korea's Kospi fell 0.4 percent at 1,944.56. Benchmarks in mainland China and India fell.
Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 62 cents to $93.02 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.21 to close at $93.64 on the Nymex on Thursday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3027 from $1.3002 late Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 98.72 yen from 99.31 yen.
Breath study brings roadside drug testing closerPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bishop michael.bishop@iop.org 01-179-301-032 Institute of Physics
A group of researchers from Sweden have provided further evidence that illegal drugs can be detected in the breath, opening up the possibility of a roadside breathalyzer test to detect substances such as cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis.
Using a simple, commercially available breath sampler, the researchers have successfully identified a range of 12 substances in the breath of 40 patients recruited from a drug emergency clinic in Stockholm.
Their findings have been published today, 26 April, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Breath Research.
Blood, urine and saliva are the most popular methods for detecting illegal drugs and are already used by law enforcement in a number of countries; however, exhaled breath is seen as a promising alternative as it's easier to collect, non-invasive, less prone to adulteration and advantageous when location becomes an obstacle, such as at the roadside.
Exhaled breath contains very small particles that carry non-volatile substances from the airway lining fluid. Any compound that has been inhaled, or is present in the blood, may contaminate this fluid and pass into the breath when the airways open. The compounds will then be exhaled and can subsequently be detected.
In this study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm collected breath, blood plasma and urine samples from 47 patients (38 males, 9 females) who had taken drugs in the previous 24 hours and were recovering at a drug addiction emergency clinic.
Interviews were also undertaken with each patient to assess their history of drug use.
The breath samples were taken using a commercially available sampling device SensAbues and then analysed using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.
The portable sampling device consists of a mouth piece and a micro-particle filter. When a patient breathes into the mouth piece, saliva and larger particles are separated from the micro-particles that need to be measured.
The micro-particles are able to pass through and deposit onto a filter, which can then be sealed and stored ready for analysis. Breath samples were analysed for twelve substances.
Alprazolam and benzoylecgonine were detected in exhaled breath for the first time, whereas for methadone, amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, morphine, 6-acetylmorphine, tetrahydrocannabinol, buprenorphine, diazepam and oxazepam, the results confirmed previous observations.
"Considering the samples were taken 24 hours after the intake of drugs, we were surprised to find that there was still high detectability for most drugs," said lead author of the study Professor Olof Beck.
"In cases of suspected driving under the influence of drugs, blood samples could be taken in parallel with breath when back at a police station. Future studies should therefore test the correlation between blood concentration of drugs of abuse and the concentrations in exhaled breath."
###
From Friday 26 April, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1752-7163/7/2/026006
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or contact with one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop: Tel: +44 (0) 1179 301032
E-mail: michael.bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Detection of drugs of abuse in exhaled breath using a device for rapid collection: comparison with plasma, urine and self-reporting in 47 drug users
3. The published version of the paper "Detection of drugs of abuse in exhaled breath using a device for rapid collection: comparison with plasma, urine and self-reporting in 47 drug users" (J. Breath Res. 7 026006) will be freely available online from Friday 26 April. It will be available at http://iopscience.iop.org/1752-7163/7/2/026006.
Journal of Breath Research
4. This journal is dedicated to all aspects of breath science, with the major focus on analysis of exhaled breath in physiology and medicine, and the diagnosis and treatment of breath odours.
IOP Publishing
5. IOP Publishing provides publications through which leading-edge scientific research is distributed worldwide. IOP Publishing is central to the Institute of Physics (IOP), a not-for-profit society. Any financial surplus earned by IOP Publishing goes to support science through the activities of IOP. Beyond our traditional journals programme, we make high-value scientific information easily accessible through an ever-evolving portfolio of community websites, magazines, conference proceedings and a multitude of electronic services. Focused on making the most of new technologies, we're continually improving our electronic interfaces to make it easier for researchers to find exactly what they need, when they need it, in the format that suits them best. Go to http://ioppublishing.org/.
The Institute of Physics
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Breath study brings roadside drug testing closerPublic release date: 25-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Michael Bishop michael.bishop@iop.org 01-179-301-032 Institute of Physics
A group of researchers from Sweden have provided further evidence that illegal drugs can be detected in the breath, opening up the possibility of a roadside breathalyzer test to detect substances such as cocaine, amphetamines and cannabis.
Using a simple, commercially available breath sampler, the researchers have successfully identified a range of 12 substances in the breath of 40 patients recruited from a drug emergency clinic in Stockholm.
Their findings have been published today, 26 April, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Breath Research.
Blood, urine and saliva are the most popular methods for detecting illegal drugs and are already used by law enforcement in a number of countries; however, exhaled breath is seen as a promising alternative as it's easier to collect, non-invasive, less prone to adulteration and advantageous when location becomes an obstacle, such as at the roadside.
Exhaled breath contains very small particles that carry non-volatile substances from the airway lining fluid. Any compound that has been inhaled, or is present in the blood, may contaminate this fluid and pass into the breath when the airways open. The compounds will then be exhaled and can subsequently be detected.
In this study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm collected breath, blood plasma and urine samples from 47 patients (38 males, 9 females) who had taken drugs in the previous 24 hours and were recovering at a drug addiction emergency clinic.
Interviews were also undertaken with each patient to assess their history of drug use.
The breath samples were taken using a commercially available sampling device SensAbues and then analysed using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry.
The portable sampling device consists of a mouth piece and a micro-particle filter. When a patient breathes into the mouth piece, saliva and larger particles are separated from the micro-particles that need to be measured.
The micro-particles are able to pass through and deposit onto a filter, which can then be sealed and stored ready for analysis. Breath samples were analysed for twelve substances.
Alprazolam and benzoylecgonine were detected in exhaled breath for the first time, whereas for methadone, amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, morphine, 6-acetylmorphine, tetrahydrocannabinol, buprenorphine, diazepam and oxazepam, the results confirmed previous observations.
"Considering the samples were taken 24 hours after the intake of drugs, we were surprised to find that there was still high detectability for most drugs," said lead author of the study Professor Olof Beck.
"In cases of suspected driving under the influence of drugs, blood samples could be taken in parallel with breath when back at a police station. Future studies should therefore test the correlation between blood concentration of drugs of abuse and the concentrations in exhaled breath."
###
From Friday 26 April, this paper can be downloaded from http://iopscience.iop.org/1752-7163/7/2/026006
Notes to Editors
Contact
1. For further information, a full draft of the journal paper or contact with one of the researchers, contact IOP Press Officer, Michael Bishop: Tel: +44 (0) 1179 301032
E-mail: michael.bishop@iop.org
IOP Publishing Journalist Area
2. The IOP Publishing Journalist Area gives journalists access to embargoed press releases, advanced copies of papers, supplementary images and videos. In addition to this, a weekly news digest is uploaded into the Journalist Area every Friday, highlighting a selection of newsworthy papers set to be published in the following week.
Login details also give free access to IOPscience, IOP Publishing's journal platform.
To apply for a free subscription to this service, please email Michael Bishop, IOP Press Officer, michael.bishop@iop.org, with your name, organisation, address and a preferred username.
Detection of drugs of abuse in exhaled breath using a device for rapid collection: comparison with plasma, urine and self-reporting in 47 drug users
3. The published version of the paper "Detection of drugs of abuse in exhaled breath using a device for rapid collection: comparison with plasma, urine and self-reporting in 47 drug users" (J. Breath Res. 7 026006) will be freely available online from Friday 26 April. It will be available at http://iopscience.iop.org/1752-7163/7/2/026006.
Journal of Breath Research
4. This journal is dedicated to all aspects of breath science, with the major focus on analysis of exhaled breath in physiology and medicine, and the diagnosis and treatment of breath odours.
IOP Publishing
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Apr. 25, 2013 ? Despite decades of research, relatively little is known about the identity of RNA molecules that are transported as part of the molecular process underpinning learning and memory.
Now, working together, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Columbia University and the University of Florida, Gainesville, have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of RNAs transported from the cell-body of neuron (nerve cell) to the synapse, the small gap separating neurons that enables cell to cell communication.
Using this new method, the scientists were able to identify nearly 6,000 transcripts (RNA sequences) from the genome of Aplysia, a sea slug widely used in scientific investigation.
The scientists' target is known as the synaptic transcriptome -- roughly the complete set of RNA molecules transported from the neuronal cell body to the synapse.
In the study, published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists focused on the RNA transport complexes that interact with the molecular motor kinesin; kinesin proteins move along filaments known as microtubules in the cell and carry various gene products during the early stage of memory storage.
While neurons use active transport mechanisms such as kinesin to deliver RNA cargos to synapses, once they arrive at their synaptic destination that service stops and is taken over by other, more localized mechanisms -- in much the same way that a traveler's bags gets handed off to the hotel doorman once the taxi has dropped them at the entrance.
The scientists identified thousands of these unique sequences of both coding and noncoding RNAs. As it turned out, several of these RNAs play key roles in the maintenance of synaptic function and growth.
The scientists also uncovered several antisense RNAs (paired duplicates that can inhibit gene expression), although what their function at the synapse might be remains unknown.
"Our analyses suggest that the transported RNAs are surprisingly diverse," said Sathya Puthanveettil, a TSRI assistant professor who designed the study. "It also brings up an important question of why so many different RNAs are transported to synapses. One reason may be that they are stored there to be used later to help maintain long-term memories."
The team's new approach offers the advantage of avoiding the dissection of neuronal processes to identify synaptically localized RNAs by focusing on transport complexes instead, Puthanveettil said. This new approach should help in better understanding changes in localized RNAs and their role in local translation as molecular substrates, not only in memory storage, but also in a variety of other physiological conditions, including development.
"New protein synthesis is a prerequisite for maintaining long term memory," he said, "but you don't need this kind of transport forever, so it raises many questions that we want to answer. What molecules need to be synthesized to maintain memory? How long is this collection of RNAs stored? What localized mechanisms come into play for memory maintenance? "
In addition to Puthanveettil, who was the first author of the study, authors of "A Strategy to Capture and Characterize the Synaptic Transcriptome," include Igor Antonov, Sergey Kalchikov, Priyamvada Rajasethupathy, Yun-Beom Choi, Maxime Kinet, Irina Morozova, James J. Russo, and Jingyue Ju of Columbia University; Kevin A. Karl of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and Eric R. Kandel of Columbia University, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Kavli Institute for Brain Science; and Andrea B. Kohn, Mathew Citarella, Fahong Yu and Leonid L. Moroz of the University of Florida, Gainesville.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Scripps Research Institute.
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Journal Reference:
S. V. Puthanveettil, I. Antonov, S. Kalachikov, P. Rajasethupathy, Y.-B. Choi, A. B. Kohn, M. Citarella, F. Yu, K. A. Karl, M. Kinet, I. Morozova, J. J. Russo, J. Ju, L. L. Moroz, E. R. Kandel. A strategy to capture and characterize the synaptic transcriptome. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1304422110
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
(Reuters) - KFC parent Yum Brands Inc on Tuesday reported that quarterly profit fell less than Wall Street expected, despite a sharp drop in sales in its top China market, sending the company's shares up nearly 6 percent.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based fast-food company also repeated its earnings forecast for the year, based on the better-than-expected first-quarter results.
Sales at established restaurants in China fell an expected 20 percent during the first quarter and Yum warned that fears surrounding a bird flu outbreak there were continuing to depress sales already struggling to recover from a previous food safety scare.
The fast-food operator reaps more than half of its overall sales in China, where most of its nearly 5,300 restaurants are KFCs.
Still, Yum expects sales to recover in China, where it is on track to add 700 new restaurants this year.
"Historically, the sales impact of Avian flu publicity has initially been dramatic at KFC, but relatively short-lived," Chief Executive David Novak said in a statement.
Yum's first-quarter net income fell to $337 million, or 72 cents per share, from $458 million, or 96 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, first-quarter earnings were 70 cents per share, 10 cents better than the average of analysts estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Based on that beat, the company backed its forecast for a mid-single-digit, full-year EPS decline.
DOUBLE WHAMMY
While it is not uncommon for Yum to hit bumps in the road in the world's fastest-growing major economy, it is unusual for the fast-food operator to be grappling with two sales-crushing crises in China at the same time.
The first came in mid-December after the discovery of excessive levels of antibiotics in chicken from two of Yum's suppliers prompted government food safety agencies to probe the company's supply chain. Yum was not fined by food safety authorities, but it suffered a widespread backlash in the mainstream media and on Weibo, the China equivalent of popular U.S. social media site Twitter.
In April, just as the pressure was beginning to ease, reports about a new bird flu outbreak began picking up steam.
Demand for poultry products since then has plummeted and the new strain of bird flu, the H7N9 virus, has infected more than 100 people and killed 22 in China.
Yum stock closed down $1.11 at $64.15 on Tuesday after BofA Merrill Lynch downgraded Yum shares to "underperform." The shares more than recovered in after-hours trading, gaining $3.87 to $68.02.
(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles. Editing by Andre Grenon)
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has agreed with a call from the country's conservative religious council for a crackdown on television stations, calling some of their programs "immoral and un-Islamic", officials said on Tuesday.
The decision by Karzai may alarm some of Afghanistan's international backers, who have invested heavily through 12 years of war in promoting liberal values and freedom of expression in Afghanistan's deeply conservative society.
The decision could also imperil advances in the country's media industry, which has enjoyed significant progress since the ouster of the austere Taliban regime 12 years ago.
Karzai issued a decree setting out the crackdown.
"The Ministry of Information and Culture must prevent (television channels) from broadcasting programs which are vulgar, obscene and un-Islamic and are counter to social morality," Karzai said in a statement issued by the Council of Ministers.
Neither Karzai nor the Council of Ministers specified in the statement what was meant by vulgar, obscene or immoral programs.
However, Jalal Noorani, an adviser to the minister of culture and Information, told Reuters immoral programs included Indian television soap operas and Afghan music videos featuring "half-naked" dancing girls.
Afghanistan's Ulema council met Karzai on Friday and demanded the government take action against some television broadcasters, accusing them of promoting prostitution, the Council of Ministers said in the statement.
The Ulema council is an influential group of scholars and religious leaders who debate religious matters and exert significant political influence.
MOLLIFYING THE TALIBAN?
Karzai provoked international outrage last year when he backed recommendations from clerics to segregate the sexes in the workplace.
Another recommendation allowed husbands to beat wives under certain circumstances, a decree which some saw as reminiscent of Taliban regime.
More than 50 private television stations, 150 radio broadcasters and about 1,000 newspapers have emerged in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001, according to Noorani.
Some of the stations broadcast Indian soap operas, dancing and songs which have drawn harsh criticism from conservative clerics and some politicians.
"There are many TV stations that turn to vulgarisms and broadcast immoral programs, which are counter to national interests and Islamic values," the Council of Ministers cited the clerics as telling Karzai.
Karzai's critics say such directives are aimed at mollifying the Taliban, who banned television during their five-year rule, and luring them to the bargaining table.
Afghan and U.S. officials have been seeking negotiations with the insurgents in the hope of ensuring stability after most foreign combat troops leave at the end of next year, though the talks are widely believed to have stalled.
Noorani said broadcasters who failed to abide by the rules could have their licenses canceled.
(Writing by Hamid Shalizi; Editing by Dylan Welch and Robert Birsel)
BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets fell Tuesday after China's manufacturing growth slowed in April, adding to worries about the health of the world's second-largest economy.
A preliminary survey by HSBC Corp. said its monthly purchasing managers' index fell to a worse-than-expected 50.5 from March's 51.6 on a 100-point scale. That comes on top of data released last week that showed an unexpected slowdown in China's first-quarter economic growth.
"It builds on that picture last week and fears of a moderating growth scenario in China," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in Sydney. "That set a negative tone."
Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.2 percent to 21,773.72. Mainland China's Shanghai Composite Index tumbled 2.1 percent to 2,194.12. The Shenzhen Composite Index lost 2.2 percent to 928.24.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei index slipped as the yen gained ground against the dollar. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo fell 0.1 percent to 13,548.76. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia also fell. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.9 percent to 5,010.20.
European stocks rose Monday in response to the re-election Saturday of Giorgio Napolitano as president of recession-mired Italy. He can now dissolve Parliament and call new elections, something he could not do in the final months of his first term. The country has been hobbled by political gridlock after inconclusive elections in February.
However, Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets in London, suggested in a commentary that Napolitano's selection by parliament reflected Italy's political chaos and the inability of its lawmakers to agree on a candidate apart from the incumbent who was planning to retire.
"Despite the optimism the inescapable fact remains that it is a sad state of affairs when an 87 year old man has to stand for re-election in an attempt to try and move the country forward."
Among individual stocks, Australia's Woodside Petroleum shot up 9.6 percent after the oil and gas company announced a special dividend and increased its dividend payout ratio after cutting a major LNG project.
Virgin Australia Holdings jumped 4.6 percent after the airline received approval from Australia's competition regulator for a takeover of budget rival Tiger Airways.
Wall Street posted modest advances Monday after energy stocks got a lift from recovering oil prices. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.1 percent to close at 14,567.17. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.5 percent, to 1,562.50. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.9 percent, to 3,233.55.
Investors are now turning their focus to company profits. About a third of the companies in the S&P 500 index, including Exxon Mobil and Apple, will report earnings this week. Of the companies that have reported earnings so far, 67 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations..
Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 51 cents to $88.68 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract for May gained 75 cents to close at $88.76 on the Nymex on Monday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3043 from $1.3060 late Monday in New York. The dollar fell to 98.78 yen from 99.42 yen.
___
Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson
NEW YORK (AP) -- Former congressman Anthony Weiner is back on Twitter.
The Democrat, who resigned in disgrace two years ago after tweeting a lewd picture of himself, has launched a new Twitter account: (at)anthonyweiner.
Weiner's first post Monday was decidedly tame: a link to a 20-page policy statement outlining "64 Ideas to keep New York City the Capital of the Middle Class." By late afternoon, he had a few thousand followers.
Weiner, 48, confirmed by email Monday that the new Twitter account is his.
"It seemed like a fresh start was in order especially in light of all the new ideas around which I am hoping to drive conversation and debate," he wrote.
Weiner, who is married and has a baby son, ran for mayor in 2005 and considered it in 2009. He said this month in a New York Times Magazine story that he is considering joining the race to succeed Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
An NBC New York-Marist Poll last week showed about half the Democrats surveyed wouldn't even consider voting for him because of the sexting scandal. But it also showed he'd get 15 percent of the vote in a potential Democratic primary, topped only by the current front-runner, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. There were similar results in a Quinnipiac University poll released last week.
In the 2011 sexting scandal, Weiner initially claimed he had been hacked after a photo of a man's underwear-clad crotch appeared on his Twitter account. As more pictures surfaced, including one of Weiner posing shirtless in his congressional office, he was forced to come clean and acknowledged exchanging inappropriate messages with several women.
Weiner's old Twitter account, (at)repweiner, still has about 68,000 followers.
Apple's iPhone 5 has been around going on 6 months now, but Samsung's Galaxy S4 has only just now hit the streets, and already we're being asked the question -- which one should you buy?
Never mind the iPhone 5 is last year's model, until Apple announces a new one this is the phone that's sitting on the shelves next to the Galaxy S4 and that makes the question a real one for real people. And luckily, it's a fairly easy one to answer, because both phones are different enough -- philosophical opposites in many cases -- they'll likely appeal to different audiences.
The Galaxy S4 has a 5-inch SAMOLED screen compared to the iPhone 5's 4-inch LED IPS in-cell display. On size and size alone, the Galaxy S4 wins. If all you want is as much screen real estate possible this side of a phablet, the Galaxy S4 takes it hands down. If you want a smaller display that's easier to fit on tight hipster pockets or use one-handed, the iPhone 5 will be more to your liking. Samsung also cleans Apple's Retina clock with a 1920x1080 (1080p) display, compared to Apple's 1136x640.
When it comes to display technology, however, the iPhone 5 cremes the Galaxy S4. Not only does Apple use in-cell display to make the pixels look like they're part of the glass, IPS LED LCD -- sorry for all the initials -- just looks and works better. Samung sticks with SAMOLED, which, like OLED in general, just isn't great for displays. It does save on power and produce nice blacks, but it remains overly saturated, subject to an annoying blue-shift, and just doesn't hold up as well under direct sunlight. Also, Samsung has stuck with an odd sub-pixel arrangement -- some variant or another of PenTile -- and while it's very difficult to see at that resolution, it's still not as good as the traditional RGB layout.
Samsung has also stuck with plastic for their casing, which not only doesn't feel as good as the plastics used by HTC and Nokia, it feels downright cheap compared to the aluminum and glass casing of the iPhone 5, and the aluminum used in the new HTC One. Samsung's plastic does make it easier for them to include a door for a removable battery and SD card, but I'm happy enough to recharge my phone when I need to, and I'd rather not have a cheap-feeling experience all day, every day, when I'm using it.
The software is a mixed bag as well. I love that Samsung is trying so many things and experimenting with so many things. Sure, some of them are beyond wacky, but some of them might just be wonderful as well. Companies that throw things against the wall do sometimes find what sticks, and that's how we get the future faster.
I just wish they'd hire some really good designers to give the icons and interface a once-over because it still comes off as an afterthought, inconsistent and utilitarian.
Overall, it's a good improvement over last year's Galaxy S3. Some are calling it a Galaxy S3S, similar to Apple's S-class iPhone updates, but the screen size increase and some of the other hardware features make it more than that. Just not a lot more.
However, it remains a largely uninspired and un-opinionated phone. The beige box of mobile. It'll be a best seller, no doubt about it. Maybe even the best seller this year. But If you don't want an iPhone 5 -- and there are some valid reasons for not wanting an iPhone 5 -- I wouldn't recommend a Galaxy S4. If you love phones and you love Android, I'd recommend an HTC One far, far more.
But don't take my word for it, read Alex's review, and then come back and let me know what you think.
Velodyne is more known for its subwoofers than it is for making headphones, but the Velodyne vTrue takes the company's expertise in deep bass in a new direction. Velodyne refers to the $399.00 (direct) vTrue as a pair of "studio headphones," although we found them to be far too leaky to be considered for serious recording applications. In every other regard, they are solid, though, so we'll review them here as simply high-end, powerful headphones. In that regard, they perform quite well?if you love gobs and gobs of boosted bass and crisp, sculpted highs. Audio purists can probably stop reading now, but if you're looking for a powerful, bass-heavy headphone pair, the vTrue is a strong option.
Design The vTrue headphones are strikingly designed, with an aluminum contour on the earcups and a brown padded leather headband and earpads. Everything from the precision-friendly headband slide adjuster to the deep blue padding over the 50mm drivers inside the earcups feels thoughtfully designed. The vTrue strikes out only on a comfort level?these headphones are bulky, and after a while, you're likely to feel some pressure on your scalp.
The audio cables are detachable, and split to connect to each earcup. One included cable has an inline remote and microphone designed for use with Apple iOS devices and all iPods 3rd-generation and up. Both cables are clothbound in deep blue and measure four feet in length.
Call clarity through the inline mic is strong enough that your call partner will understand you, and you'll understand them just fine, but it's not excellent?the mic sounds a bit muffled at times, and we're also dealing with cellular fidelity.
Also included with the vTrue: a ?-inch adapter for larger headphone jacks and a black drawstring carrying pouch.
Performance On tracks with deep, sub-bass content, like the Knife's "Silent Shout," the vTrue is able to show off a bit. Audiophiles seeking flat, accurate response should look elsewhere, as the vTrue is a bass-boosted powerhouse. At maximum volume, the vTrue sounds as if it is just about to distort, but never really reaches the breaking point?and these headphones get quite loud. At safer, more reasonable listening levels, the bass response is intense and clean.
Luckily, Velodyne has the good sense to add some serious mid-high and high frequency tweaking so the sound signature isn't a muddy, undefined mess. On Bill Callahan's "Drover," the vTrue graces his vocals with a nice treble edge which helps it stand front and center in the mix. This is important, because the boosted bass response arms the constant drumbeat with some serious low-end thunder, making it also stand out quite a bit. Without the sculpted treble, his vocals would get lost and the mix would be too focused on the low-mids and lows.
Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild" benefits from the high frequency sculpting, as well?the kick drum loop has a nice punchy attack, while the sub-bass synth hits that sit beneath the loop in the mix are delivered with some serious throttle. The vocals in this dense mix stand out in the same way Callahan's do on his track?the crisp edge they get from the vTrue helps separate them from the powerful lows and mids.
Classical tracks, like John Adams' "The Chairman Dances," can sound a tad too tweaked and sculpted. The highs are boosted, which occasionally makes the higher register strings and brass sound a bit too bright, but the lower register strings absorb the added bass response nicely. The large drum hits at the end of track sound a bit too bass-boosted, however?almost as if they are amplified instead occurring naturally in a concert hall.
In other words, these headphones don't offer a flat response in any sense?there's tons of bass, and lots of liberties are taken with the high-mids and highs, as well. The result is something bass lovers will enjoy and purists will probably want to avoid. If you're looking for headphones in the price range with a bit less boosting in the lows, the?Sennheiser Momentum?is a solid option and less bulky, while the TDK ST750 is a powerful pair that focuses more on the high-mids and highs.?If you like big bass, but the vTrue's price tag is too high, the?Denon Urban Raver AH-D320?offers a similar sound signature for a significantly lower price. And if it's a true studio headphone pair you seek, you can spend quite a bit less and still have top quality?Sennheiser's HD 280 Pro?is an excellent flat response option. The Velodyne True offers clean, bold performance with booming low-end, and it comes with two top-notch, detachable cables?if it were less expensive, it would get a higher rating.
The Garmin n?vi 3597LMTHD ($379.99 direct) is the best automotive GPS navigation device you can buy today. While the market for standalone devices has stagnated and even contracted in recent years, there's still plenty of demand?especially at bargain prices. That's not the 3597LMTHD's mission; instead, it advances the state of the art with its magnetic mount, glass capactive screen, and beautiful 3D lane assistance, so it's our Editors' Choice for high-end GPS devices. If you're willing to shell out the cash, the n?vi 3597LMTHD is the best add-on car navigation device you'll find.?
Design and Screen The n?vi 3597LMTHDmeasures 5.4 by 3.1 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.8 ounces. The housing is a little thinner and more tapered than last year's 3590LMT, and is nicely finished in a textured silver aluminum. The package contains the device itself, a vehicle suction cup mount, a combination power cable and traffic receiver, a USB cable, and a Quick Start manual.
The new magnetic mount is one of the best things about the 3597LMTHD; it grabs strongly enough to hold the device in place on the windshield or dashboard, but it also lets go easily for when you want to take the unit with you after parking the car. Unlike other devices, you don't have to snap it in and out of a holder with a clasp, or line it up with a docking connector; you just place it on, and pull it away when you're done. Plus, the power cable plugs into the mount, not the device, so you can leave the mount wired up and ready to go in the car.
The big 5-inch glass capacitive display supports multi-touch, so you can pinch and zoom map graphics and other data. It features a sharp 800-by-480-pixel resolution and is bright and colorful. Unfortunately, the glass shows plenty of reflections, especially with the top down on the Mini Cooper convertible I tested with; it was very difficult to see from certain angles. There's also a built-in accelerometer for using the 3597LMTHD in either horizontal or vertical orientation, which is an unusual and welcome feature in a standalone GPS.
You get free lifetime map updates, which include routes, POIs, and navigation info up to four times per year for the life of the device. Garmin used to charge a lot of money for map updates, but with the advent of always-updated GPS apps on cell phones, the company ended the practice.
Performance, Other Features, and Conclusions The user interface is a little different than before; Garmin has increased the size of the upcoming turn and distance icon on the top left, which is a good move. You still see a large speed limit sign, plus your speed, ETA, and current road along the bottom, while the top right features an oversize bar for the next turnoff road. The unit warns you of upcoming school zones and other road hazards, and you can display nearby gas stations, ATMs, and restaurants, and navigate to them with a single tap.
In the menu system, there's an Apps subcategory that lets you hook into Garmin's ecoRoute HD dongle, among other things, and you can run voice-activated searches, which were hit-or-miss in my testing, as is often the case with this feature.
Map graphics look great; the 3597LMTHD inherits the terrain renderings of the prior 3590LMT and 3790T models, and also displays many buildings in Manhattan in 3D. You also get split-screen, photorealistic 3D lane assistance, which shows you how to exit up ahead on the right, while continuing to update the standard 3D map on the left. Both views are a little small as a result, but it's a very useful feature to have.
In my tests, voice prompts sounded smooth, clear, and full, and were loud enough to compensate for the top being down on the convertible. The?3597LMTHD also uses natural language processing when possible, so that it says "turn left at the light" instead of the name of the next street.
Real-time traffic software also gets a boost; you can now bring up a large display on the right that indicates an upcoming delay, how far along in the trip it is, how long the delay is, and how much time a suggested reroute would save.?Garmin says you'll get roughly two hours of battery life out of the 3597LMTHD. That's basically only good for taking it out of the DC jack in order to use it for an emergency cell phone charge, but that's fine.??The n?vi 2597LMT also offers voice-activated Bluetooth hands-free calling.
Unfortunately, while the?3597LMTHD showcases many recent advances on Garmin's part, it's still $380, and is limited by the current state of consumer GPS technology. The 3597LMTHD lost position a few times, particularly in Manhattan, thanks to the well-documented "urban canyons" problem with GPS location. Sometimes, the 3597LMTHD thinks you're in one lane about to follow its directions, when you're in fact in an adjacent lane?say, a service road, or after a major split, where half the traffic will turn off and head somewhere else. I would follow the unit's directions, only to later miss a turn it wanted me to take, because it never indicated which side of the median I should be on. In addition, real-time traffic works fairly well on major highways, but it's still not perfect, and the?3597LMTHD missed some congestion on secondary roads and New York city streets during my test period.
Having said all of that, the Garmin?n?vi 3597LMTHD is a top pick, as long as you are willing to pay a premium for the best, and as long as you understand that even the best consumer GPS devices have yet to solve certain issues while on the road. The Garmin n?vi 2597LMT swaps the capacitive touch screen for a plastic resistive one that isn't as sharp, the casing is made of plastic instead of aluminum, and it switches to a standard. non-magnetic mount, but otherwise it has the same features and performs very similarly to the 3597LMTHD, but for $130 less. Finally, the?Magellan SmartGPS, offers smartphone data connectivity, a cloud-based account, and a similar glass capacitive touch screen also for $130 less, although its interface is far more cluttered and complex.
Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive and founder of investment firm The Social+Capital Partnership, said today that the tech world should be "utterly ashamed," because "we are at an absolute minimum in terms of things that are being started." Palihapitiya was interviewed on-stage at our Disrupt NY conference. He argued that in contrast to past decades, where tech entrepreneurs were inventing silicon chips, putting computers on every desktop, or wiring the world, we're now "rehashing ideas from 2003." He didn't name a specific company, but when Palihapitiya talked disdainfully about an instant messaging app that allows you to send photos of everything from an apple orchard to your genitalia, and that the message disappears after a short period of time, it's not too hard to decipher who he's talking about.
Today at Disrupt NY 2013, Benchmark partner Bill Gurley shared an interesting fact about Uber. “Uber is growing faster than eBay did,” Gurley said. In 1997, Benchmark invested $6.7 million in eBay. It was worth more than $5 billion less than two years later. Benchmark is also an investor in Uber. “Uber is probably the fastest growing company that we?ve ever had,” Gurley said. He insisted a lot on the quality of the product. If a company builds a good product, it will grow organically. Benchmark took part in Uber’s Series A and Series B rounds of respectively $11 million and $37 million. Gurley seemed very satisfied with this investment and only had good things to say about the car company. “The product is so good, there is no one spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing,” Gurley said. eBay and Uber are both consumer companies that have reached a lot of customers in a very short time. It contrasts a lot with his comments about the past failures of the tech industry. “On the consumer side, the risk is what there was in the late 1990s, with too much money spent on marketing,” Gurley said. A few days ago, New York finally decided that e-hail services would be able to operate in the city. Last year Uber launched UberX in New York, its e-hailing service on top of regular taxis. But the company had to kill its service because of legislation issues. Uber will now be able to enter the market again, with competition from Hailo, TaxiMagic and others. On Twitter, Uber investor Sherwin Pishevar added: I'd been hesitant to publicly say this re: @Uber but since @bgurley said it, I can confirm @Uber is fastest growing company I've ever seen.— Shervin Pishevar (@shervin) April 29, 2013 And check out the video of Gurley on stage below:![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 25-Apr-2013
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