The Curious Case of Samsung’s Missing TVs

In August, workers at Samsung Electronics (005930) in the South Korean city of Suwon swathed 60 next-generation televisions in bubble wrap and nailed them into wooden crates. Two weeks later, when the boxes were opened at a Berlin trade show, two TVs were missing. The 55-inch prototypes—each costing $ 10,000 and weighing about 43 pounds—featured breakthrough technology known as organic light-emitting...

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Noisy city: Cacophony in Caracas sparks complaints

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — This metropolis of 6 million people may be one of the world’s most intense, overwhelming cities, with tremendous levels of crime, traffic and social strife. The sounds of Caracas‘ streets live up to its reputation.Stand on any downtown corner, and the cacophony can be overpowering: Deafening horns blast from oncoming buses, traffic police shrilly blow their whistles and sirens...

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Samsung takes aim at Japanese rivals with Android camera

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics Co is taking aim at its Japanese rivals with an Android-powered digital camera that allows users to swiftly and wirelessly upload pictures to social networking sites.The Galaxy camera lets users connect to a mobile network or Wi-Fi to share photographs and video without having to hook up the camera to a computer.While it’s...

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Cate Blanchett in negotiations for evil stepmother in Disney’s Cinderella film

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Cate Blanchett is in negotiations to play the evil stepmother in Disney‘s re-imagining of the classic fairytale Cinderella, the “Untitled Cinderella Story,” an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap.Blanchett would be the first to be cast in the live-action film. It is being directed by Mark Romanek for the studio based on a script by Chris Weitz.The film...

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Arizona declines to set up state-based health insurance exchange

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said on Wednesday she was rejecting a major provision of President Barack Obama‘s healthcare reform law that calls for creating state-based health insurance markets where consumers can purchase private, federally subsidized coverage.Citing lingering questions about the plan and operating costs she said would be passed on to families and small businesses,...

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Report: Economy boosted entrepreneurship in 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — The slow improvement in the economy gave a huge boost to entrepreneurship in the U.S. last year, according to a study released Thursday.More than 29 million people were starting or running new businesses in 2011, the study by Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., and Baruch College in New York shows. That was a 60 percent gain from 2010, when entrepreneurship was hurt by uncertainty...

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Rapper PSY wants Tom Cruise to go ‘Gangnam Style’

BANGKOK (AP) — The South Korean rapper behind YouTube’s most-viewed video ever has set what might be a “Mission: Impossible” for himself.Asked which celebrity he would like to see go “Gangnam Style,” the singer PSY told The Associated Press: “Tom Cruise!”Surrounded by screaming fans, he then chuckled at the idea of the American movie star doing his now famous horse-riding dance.PSY’s comments Wednesday...

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Cyber Monday sales best ever, for Amazon’s Kindle too

(Reuters) – Internet sales jumped more than 30 percent on Cyber Monday, making it the biggest online shopping day ever, according to data released on Tuesday.Walmart.com, the online division of Walmart U.S., had its best sales day in history, a spokeswoman said.Cyber Monday also was a record day for sales of Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle devices, the online retailer said, without specifying the number sold.Still,...

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Flu Symptoms Drove Boston Mayor to Hospital

When Boston Mayor Thomas Menino ended his vacation in Italy short this fall and checked into a Boston hospital complaining of a respiratory infection, it led doctors to find and treat a blood clot in his leg, a fracture in his back, an infection around the fracture and type 2 diabetes.Cold and flu symptoms from respiratory infections can be a hassle, but sometimes that fever and cough can be good...

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China ‘not currency manipulator’

27 November 2012 Last updated at 16:41 ETThe US has decided not to declare China as having manipulated its currency to gain an unfair trade advantage.But the Treasury did say that China’s currency, the yuan, remains “significantly undervalued” and urged China to make further progress.In its semi-annual report, it said Beijing did not meet the criteria to be called a currency manipulator, which could...

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