Awesome Web News Jan 2013

Below are the awesome web news for January 2013.

1.11

First Time Ever: The Miss California Pageant Is Allowing A Transgender Woman To Compete - in a historic event, the first transgender to be allowed to compete in the Miss California beauty pageant is going to be Kylan Arianna Wenzel. Whether the other beauty pageant organizations are going to follow remains to be seen.

Four reasons your version of better might not be enough - I really like this one from Seth Godin especially part of -- so noisy, exaggerate, lie, spin. I remember an executive doing these earlier today.

IBM caps two decades as heavyweight champion of the patent world -- IBM is still the king of patents and has been for the past two decades.

'Star Wars' TV series under consideration, ABC boss confirms - Star Wars series on TV? Now that I am excited on Star Wars VII, I don't welcome the idea of a TV series.

Jackie Chan Thinks America is ‘The Most Corrupt’ Nation in the World - Jackie Chan has a history of spitting out his political views during press conferences and getting someone mad. This includes the Hong Kong and Philippines incident a few years back. Today, Jackie Chan says America is the most corrupt nation in the world.

Microsoft to turn off Windows Messenger on 15 March - Microsoft Windows Live Messenger is out of the picture beginning March 15 and would be replaced by Skype. If you are a user start familiarizing yourself to Skype to ease the transition.

Doctors making the most of cloud computing - cloud computing strategy is helping these doctors become more efficient in their service.

1.10

The Genius of Samsung - Who could argue Samsung's push to the top and is described as a worthy opponent against the biggest tech hitters in the industry. Read about their Genius that led to their current position.

NPD report finds Xbox 360 'dominated' 2012 console sales, 890,000 Wii Us sold in the US so far - US belongs to XBox 360 as Microsoft has sold 1.4 million units in December compared to 890,000 units sold for Wii in more than 5 weeks. The Worldwide sales however has Microsoft trailing by 1 million units against PS3.

Lenovo's CEO defends his 'PC -plus era' strategy - Lenovo CEO coins PC -plus which is their business strategy on dominating the PC market plus all the other gadgets surrounding it like smartphones and tablets.

The Razer Edge Gaming Tablet Is The Only Windows 8 Tablet You Should Buy - is it the only Windows 8 tablet you should buy?

7 social networks to watch in 2013 - the promising 7 social networks for 2013.

It's Official: Microsoft Windows 8 Isn't Working - this is an article about the PC industry more than Windows 8 but we all know the fate of the PC market depends largely on the success of the operating system.

Lockheed Confirms Receipt of $755 Million Patriot Contract - Lockheed has opened the bottle of champagne with their whopping $755 million dollar contract.

Apple's Schiller Denies Reports of a 'Cheap' iPhone - A few days ago Apple is reportedly building a cheaper iPhone which is contradictory to their high priced gadget lineup. An Apple executive makes it clear that Apple's future is not going to be on cheap smartphones, now that sounds like Apple.

Windows 8 Licenses Reach 60 Million Mark: Microsoft - Microsoft Windows 8 has been licensed 60 million times and looks like it is having a successful run similar to Windows 7.

This Picture Shows Everything Wrong With 'Booth Babes' at CES - booth babes are hired in conferences, trade shows, exhibits or any booth shows to attract people, I agree that this CES 2013 booth babe is so wrong.

Investors, Starbucks co-bidder oppose McDreamy's Tully's buy - Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey is in bidding controversy with AgriNuture which is a food producer and distributor based in the Philippines on the acquisition of the Tully's franchise.

Facebook Charging $100 to Message Mark Zuckerberg - if you are an investor you should be happy that Facebook's revenue generation challenge is being handled up to the highest level, where Mark Zuckerberg is trying to get their company cash $100 dollars at a time.

Why Amazon Won't Give You Free Digital Copies of Your Movies and Books - Do you want free digital copies of your movies and books from Amazon, maybe not?

In pictures: Sheringham history revealed in photo find - a series of photographs dating 100 years back. These are awesome photos that reveal the culture of that time.

How Can I Make Doctor and Dentist Appointments More Bearable? - I am not fond of seeing doctors and Melanie has a great list for making it more bearable.

‘First’ Pirate Bay Server on Permanent Display in Computer Museum - Pirate Bay known for file sharing to the consumer and known to be a torn to government anti-piracy officials had one of its servers placed in a computer museum.

CBS takes aim at a rival, shoots CNET in the foot - CES corporate conflicts are part of its allure, CBS and CNET are one of the many stories.

The North Dakota Town Where A One-Bedroom Apartment Rents For $2,100 A Month - North Dakota rents its apartment like New York City but not because of the culture and stores but because of the high paying oil mining jobs.

1.9

If Apple was more like Samsung - Last year Samsung released 37 phones, HTC 18, Nokia 9 & LG 24. If Apple was like Samsung, what would their phones names be? What's interesting in this article are the comments full of argumentation & debate.

Negative Thinking Can Actually Help You Accomplish Your Goals - I do agree that positive thinking can cause stress and fear of failure.

Sacramento NBA owners reportedly set to sell to Seattle group - I felt sad when Seattle lost it's NBA team and I still remembering buying the remaining memorabilia at their store. I hope that Seattle gets an NBA team back, sadly at the expense of Sacramento.

Google's Schmidt takes a techie tour of North Korea - Google CEO visiting North Korea, maybe looking to add to an untapped and potentially huge uptake market.

Americans Far Less Healthy, Die Younger Than Global Peers, Study Finds vaccines, at least that's the argument & explanation a number of European doctors I had and why they keep vaccines at the utmost minimum and trust & allow the body to will itself to be strong. US doctors on the other hand have the most rigorous vaccination checklist. Very different schools of thought, but I had a lot of non-US doctors refer to the statistics like the article above.

The Fate of Young Scientists - the number of scientists is declining because of a number of factors which include grants and job openings.

1.8

Didn't think I would see this kind of thing in the Bay Area... - this is racist and based on my own personal experience around bay area, I am not surprised at all.

Apple Working on a Less-Expensive iPhone - Apple continue to shake up their principles since Steve Jobs' passing. First they released a smaller iPad and now they are building cheaper iPhones.

Star Wars Episode VII: Who Will Direct it Now? - now the world is waiting who will be brave enough to accept the director role in this sequel.

More StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm lore questions answered - StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is coming and important questions from gaming fans are answered here.

T-Mobile confirms $70 contract-free plan with unlimited data, offers $200 Optimus L9 as a lure - I hope T-mobiles' push on this no-contract plans would encourage other carriers to follow suit.

Diet drinks' 'link to depression' questioned - diet drinks is a programmer's buddy and these types of drinks are found in cafeterias on even the biggest companies drank by executives. They seem fine to me.

Nokia's India factory raided by tax officials - Nokia is on-roll for self-destruction, they are declining on every front and the tax raid together with the 6% decline in shares after that isn't helping.

McDonald's makes name change in Australia - It probably took years and a lot of discussion before they decided to do this in Australia, but will other countries follow suit on having specific branding?

Lenovo K900 is the first Intel Clover Trail+ phone, boasts 5.5-inch 1080p screen and 13MP cam - this is a classy phone from Lenovo which reminds me of the old Nokia stainless steel sliding phones of the 1990s.

IdeaPad Yoga 11S hands-on: Lenovo's 11-inch convertible goes Windows 8 - Lenovo's yoga line of Windows 8 laptops convertible into tablet has made hot waves during CES 2013. The 11-inch yoga laptops are arriving in June 2013.

Amex stops giving fresh work to Indian IT firms - Cognizant potentially losing 100M USD in earnings from Amex is huge and depending on Amex's strategy, earnings might be kept off from Indian companies.

Lenovo thinks high-end, in-house - the author thinks that Lenovo is making a step backwards by building their PCs in-house instead of outsourcing to cheapen the high investment costs for manufacturing. Chinese are very good in keeping things in-house and if someone call pull this off, its Lenovo.

1.7

NVIDIA’s Project Shield: an Android-based handheld with Steam Big Picture streaming - NVIDIA has taken mobile gaming to the next level. First there was the PSP and Nintendo DS systems, then mobile gaming with inferior games became a hit which was not really a step up but a step down system. NVIDIA hopes to change that with their Project Shield, a mobile XBox, PS3 kind of sytem.

Apple Tops 50% Of The U.S. Smartphone Market - android had a powerful sales run at the middle of last year which looked like it was leaving Apple behind; but Apple came back with a 12-week push by the end of November 25 on a 53.3% market share.

NVIDIA announces quad-core Tegra 4 processor - the next generation of NVIDIA mobile processors are upon us and the company calls it the NVIDIA Tegra 4 codename "Wayne". This processor has a special feature which allows faster photo processing through its Computational Photography Architecture.

Is Napa a candidate for an Apple store? - job postings, rumors, & reports are suggesting that Apple is going to put up a store in Napa. Napa Valley is place of nature and a high tech store could rattle things up.

Starbucks Gains Leadership in Nearly $1 Billion Light Roast Coffee Segment - there is nothing light about people's fascination for light products from beverages, food, snacks, etc and for Starbucks it is a $1 Billion dollar market.

The Top 5 Productivity Mistakes - a good small list of productivity mistakes you can follow for your new year's resolution.

8 Ways to Simplify the Pursuit of Happiness - a practical list of a person's pursuit of happiness.

Lenovo ThinkPad Helix Is a Powerful Windows 8 Tablet - lenovo thinkpad helix is a thing of beauty and is expected to be out by February. The only non-cool thing about it is the $1,499 USD price tag.

1.6

What Is CES? - ces is the biggest Consumer Electronics event in the world. The buzz level and media attention it gets every January is loud and continuous. For people not in the know but still read headlines or hear it on the news, this is a good starter information for the event.

Could Apple's Rumored iWatch Be an iPhone Killer? - first there was Google glasses, now comes the iWatch. Wearable computer technology is at the early stage but which goes up at the top of the food chains is years ahead of us.

Toshiba unveils $800 Satellite U845t: a touchscreen Ultrabook for the budget crowd (hands-on photos) - with the introduction of Windows 8, touchscreen laptops are becoming the standard and Toshiba wants to bring consumer and budget-friendly price to these computers.

1.5

Is Apple the Next Nintendo? - apple is at the top of the game but as we all know everyone who is on top somehow find themselves in the backseat in the next decade or so. Apple is being compared to Nintendo which had the same status as Apple has right now.

1.4

A career in technology at Microsoft - if you are planning or just plain curious on what career jobs Microsoft has to offer, this chart provides a good overview.

Stocks with Over 100 Years of Uninterrupted Dividends (Last Part) - these two companies have 100 years of stockholder dividend streak.

Megan Fox Joined Twitter, Okay? Are You F-cking Happy Now? - megan fox finally got his twitter and said she tried every possible combination of her name but was already taken. Even if you don't like social media, its better to get the name for yourself and park it rather than have everyone else use it on your behalf.

Steven Sinofsky starts a product development blog, continues telling epic-length tales - Retired Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky is well known around the circle of Microsoft technologist but after his retirement his popularity dwindled. You can still catch him on his latest activities.

1.3

Will Apple shares keep falling in 2013? - a good read if you are deciding to sell or buy Apple stocks for 2013.

Starbucks to Open First Shop in Vietnam - I am not sure if the reputation of Starbucks has reached Vietnam and whether the people were wishing they had one. They don't have to wait any longer as Starbucks is keen on opening their first shop there.

Ian Thorpe still believes he has an elite "life in the pool" ahead - talk about new year's resolutions, Ian Thorpe has a strong spirit to return back in shape.

1.2

Meet Microsoft, the world's best kept R&D secret - in the early days of Microsoft it was rumored that they were building an R&D lab similar to GE's legendary house of magic. For the longest time since then Microsoft has built an admirable R&D and this gives you a glimpse of where they spend their $9.6 billion dollars a year in R&D funds.

1.1

9 Apps to Fast-Track Your New Year's Resolutions - new year brings a lot of hope and resolutions, this article gives you a quick listing of apps to jumpstart your new year's self-help initiatives.