http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/20/yale-demos-nfc-enabled-residential-locks-germaphobes-rejoice-v/

Yale demos NFC-enabled residential locks, germaphobes rejoice (video)

By Amar Toor posted Sep 21, 2011 8:30AM

Assa Abloy has already brought NFC-based door locks to some Swedishhotel rooms, but one of its subsidiary companies is now looking to bring them to your doorstep, as well. Earlier this month, Yale Locks & Hardware unveiled what it hopes will be the first NFC-enabled residential lock to hit the US market. With this system, all you'll need to do is wave your smartphone in front of one of Yale's Real Living line of motorized locks, which will then automatically open (as long as you've been authorized to do so). Demoed at this year's CEDIA Expo, these revamped locks are also compatible with either Zigbee or Z-Wave home automation technologies and support Assa Abloy's Mobile Keys software, which allows users to securely load all of their digital keys on their handsets. Pricing and availability remain unclear, but you can unlock more details in the brief demo video and full press release, after the break.

Show full PR text

Yale Debuts First NFC Door Lock for Homes

Near Field Communication (NFC) employs Mobile Keys platform from parent company Assa Abloy.

LENOIR CITY, TN -- Yale Locks & Hardware (http://www.yalelocks.com), an ASSA ABLOY Group company and a world leader in door hardware for residential and commercial applications, will demonstrate a version of its Yale Real Living locks with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The demonstration will take place at the upcoming CEDIA Expo 2011, September 7-10 in Indianapolis, IN.

The Yale Real Living line is the company's first locks specifically designed to integrate seamlessly into the digital home.

In adding NFC capability, Yale expects to be the first US brand to offer residential locks with NFC capability. What's more, this Yale Real Living line will be compatible with the ASSA ABLOY Mobile Keys platform. A scalable secure delivery infrastructure for distribution and management of mobile keys, the ASSA ABLOY Mobile Keys platform allows credentials to be distributed securely through NFC-enabled mobile phones as an alternative to mechanical keys and physical access cards. Consequently, this will be the first line of residential locks that can be unlocked directly using an NFC-enabled mobile phone.

NFC is a short-range wireless communication technology standard that enables the exchange of data between devices up to a 10-centimeter distance. Applications include contactless transactions such as payment and transit ticketing, keys, data transfers including electronic business cards, and access to online digital content.

The mobile keys platform enabled by the NFC technology has already been introduced to the hospitality industry by Yale's parent company, ASSA ABLOY. In fact, ASSA ABLOY recently completed the first-ever trial of the mobile keys platform at the Clarion Hotel in Stockholm, in which 28 frequent hotel guests were invited to use the technology over an eight-month period. Reaction to the mobile keys platform was overwhelmingly positive.

"From a residential perspective, the mobile phone is ubiquitous," said Jason Williams, General Manager of Yale Residential. "We use it to make reservations, schedule our day, everything. By incorporating NFC technology into our Yale Real Living locks, we've extended the functionality of the mobile phone even further. What's more, we've created a highly secure product that capitalizes on ASSA ABLOY technology that is being extremely well-received in other end-user markets."

Available with either a sleek capacitive touchscreen or pushbutton key pad, Yale's new platform of intelligent locks supports both Z-Wave(R) and ZigBee, allowing them to integrate seamlessly into a wide range of home control and security systems, including Control4, the Vera Z-Wave home control system by Mi Casa Verde, and Alarm.com's emPower, among others.

Via: CE Pro

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/23/microsoft-patents-modular-windows-phone-with-swappable-batteries/

Microsoft patents modular Windows Phone with swappable batteries, keyboard, and gamepad

By Sean Buckley posted Sep 23, 2011 9:14PM

We've seen slider phones with speakers, gamepads, and of course, the standard keypad -- but what if you want to swap out your slider accessory for something new? A new patent from Microsoft is exploring the possibility, showing off a concept smartphone with a sliding modular bay. Tired of that keyboard? Replace it with a gamepad, or a life-giving battery pack. According to the patent claims, some of the modular components would even function wirelessly, citing a touchscreen module which doubles as a wireless handset or a media remote. Neat? You bet, but we wouldn't get our hopes up -- Microsoft typically keeps out of the handset manufacturing game, and the last modular phone to pique our interest didn't exactly make a splash.

Via: Unwired View 
Source: USPTO

5 Things Every Investor Needs to Know About This Market

http://navelliergrowth.investorplace.com/whats-working-on-wall-street/archive/2011/09/20110920-5-things-to-know.html

Fashion accessories augmented reality - Virtual Mirror

Qualcomm AR Contest Winner - Paparazzi

Five Ways to Improve Your Website

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/Five-Ways-Improve-Your-entrepreneur-1151036451.html?x=0%22%3Ehttp://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/Five-Ways-Improve-Your-entrepreneur-1151036451.html?x=0

Khoa Bui, On Friday 22 July 2011, 15:40 SGT

Have you ever visited a website and closed it within a few seconds? There are many reasons why people do this. A guest may want exit your website if it:

• Takes too long to load
• Doesn't look like it relates to what they're searching for
• Doesn't load correctly
• Is too cluttered
• Is too empty

As a small-business owner, why would you invest thousands of dollars in building a site if visitors just tune out?

Solving click-off is one of the biggest challenges I discovered while building thousands of websites for clients as a website designer. If a visitor comes to your website and leaves within eight seconds, you need to fix something. Here are five fast ways that I've used that dramatically minimize click-off by improving your website's performance, speed, search engine results and relevance for users.

1. Speed up your website.
When your site doesn't immediately grab visitors' attention and inspire them to take action, you're wasting leads who could have become long-term customers.

One culprit for visitors quickly leaving your site may be a slow-to-load home page, and one of the biggest contributors to a slow-loading website is large, high-resolution images. Large animated Flash files can also weigh down a site's loading time.

Related: Five Time-Saving Tips for Updating Web Content

To fix this issue, consider putting fewer images on your home page and no Flash at all. You can also ask your web designer or developer to optimize your current images by compressing them and lowering the resolution.
One easy way to test the speed of your website is to view it on a slow Internet connection. Don't have access to a slow connection? Search online for "website speed test" for free tools to test the speed of your site.

Another issue to consider is whether your web host is slowing you down. Before you pay for a host, research reputable companies known for fast, high-quality connections.

2. Bold keywords.
Search engines want to provide relevant results on websites with high-quality content. That makes it critical for you to provide the most relevant, high-quality information your target market will be searching for. One way to quickly connect visitors to that great information is to bold the most important keywords.

For example, if someone finds your site by searching "cycling in Perth," make sure your website has the keywords "cycling" and "Perth" in bold type. I'm not suggesting that you continually bold all your website keywords. Just bold one or two keywords close to the top of your web page.

3. Tag your graphics.
Another way to attract more traffic is to optimize your graphics so they become more visible to the search engines. Many entrepreneurs don't realize how much they can benefit from being listed in the Google Images database.

So how do people find you when they search for images? It's easy. When building your website, make sure your web designer includes the correct coding to hook your images with relevant keywords. Name your image files with relevant, descriptive words and include a title tag and an alt tag in your image code. These tags allow you to include more information and keywords related to your image. By including these elements, search engines will be able to understand the content of your images and it will make your site more accessible to visitors with visual disabilities.

Related: Making the Most of 'Contact Us' to Gather Leads

Make sure you don't keyword-stuff that code, though. Search engines will know you're trying to cheat the system, and you'll run the risk of becoming banned from their listings. Just describe the images in natural language without repeating words.

4. Update your website dates.
When your website has the current date, it's basically telling visitors that this website is up to date. It's fresh and current. Search engines know this and take it into consideration. After all, search engines want to provide the best possible results.

If you visit a website and scroll to the bottom and see "Copyright 2005," you might think that was the last time the site was updated. Outdated information makes the site look neglected and unprofessional.

5. Comply with online quality standards.
In a nutshell, W3C compliance is an online standard, or set of rules, that, when followed, ensures your website adheres to a strict quality standard. (W3C is short for the World Wide Web Consortium, the main international standards organization for the Web.) When you create your site according to these standards, it tells the world you care about quality and taking good care of your site.

Some of the coding differences can seem miniscule and tedious -- for example, remembering to include a slash at the end of a line of code -- but my own experience as a web designer showed me that when I make the extra effort to follow these standards, my site earns better rankings. If you are not building your own site, make sure that your web developer is applying W3C compliance to all of your website work.

Related: Five Things You Should Know About Web Analytics

 

This article originally posted on Entrepreneur.com

Top foreign buyer of Singapore property

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/04/solar-powered-rollerblading-robot-carries-you-to-work-on-a-chari/

Solar-powered rollerblading robot carries you to work on a chariot of humiliation (video)

By Amar Toor posted Sep 4, 2011 7:01PM

Bob Schneevis is at it again. The man who turned George W. Bush into arobotic Roman warrior has now developed something he calls the Solar Electric Robot Chariot. Showcased at this year's Maker Faire Bay Area, Schneevis' single-motor, bot-drawn carriage features a set of battery-juicing solar panels and an array of cameras that control its chauffeur's mechanized movements. The bot, meanwhile, glides around on a pair of rollerblades and is designed to move its legs in the same way humans do -- with the only difference being that humans don't rollerblade anymore. Skate past the break to see the chariot coast around a parking lot with Mitchell Goosen-like grace.

Via: io9
Source: Make

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/05/kts-spider-concept-phone-is-also-a-laptop-a-tablet-and-a-game/

KT's Spider Concept phone is also a laptop, a tablet and a game console (video)

By Terrence O'Brien posted Sep 6, 2011 2:28AM

You probably thought Motorola had a lock on this whole docks for your phone thing, but Korean company KT quietly launched an assault on the Atrix manufacturer at IFA. Rather than a single (and underwhelming) "Webtop," KT's Spider Concept has three different accessories that expand the capabilities of the 4.5-inch gingerbread device. The laptop dock adds a QWERTY keyboard, an extended battery and a revamped UI while relying on the phone itself as the touchpad. If keyboards aren't your thing, there's the Spider PAD tablet shell which blows the interface up to 10.1-inches while adding a few slate-friendly tweaks. Last is the gaming dock, a simple cradle with a D-pad and buttons that connects to the Spider via Bluetooth. The phone itself is no slouch, packing 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor. Oh, and that 4.5-inch screen? A stunning 1280 x 800 resolution. It's kind of hard to believe all that is jammed into a package just 9.34mm (0.37-inches) thin. The phone is expected to launch in Korea in either November or December, though price and international availability are still up in the air. Check out the pair of videos after the break.

Source: AndroidPIT, Areamobile

IAI - Ghost UAV

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8KSdRGc7yM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

BAE's Adaptive Camouflage

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlLqdFsMnCE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/05/amazon-ceos-flying-water-tank-crashes-leaves-dent-in-his-space/

Amazon CEO's flying water tank crashes, leaves dent in his space travel dream

By Sharif Sakr posted Sep 6, 2011 3:38PM

In a moment of profound candidness, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos has revealed that the mid-air failure of his unmanned spaceship 11 days ago was "not the outcome any of us wanted." The searing truth of his statement is certainly borne out by the fact that NASA has pouredmillions of dollars of funding into Bezos's space company, Blue Origin, in the hope that it will one day ferry people to the ISS and replace thescuttled shuttle program. Indeed, Blue Origin's latest craft looked every inch a shuttle-beater until it suddenly went berserk at 45,000 feet, forcing the Asimovian onboard computer to cut power and nose dive into the ground in an effort to avoid civilian casualties. Not an ideal result, to be sure, but Jeff is hardly likely to give up on his starry ambitions -- everybody knows he has a thing for thrusters.

Source: WSJ

Amazon CEO's flying water tank crashes, leaves dent in his space travel dream

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/05/amazon-ceos-flying-water-tank-crashes-leaves-dent-in-his-space/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/05/wicked-lasers-s3-krypton-laser-is-bright-enough-to-blind-astron/

Wicked Lasers' S3 Krypton laser is bright enough to blind astronauts (video)

By Terrence O'Brien posted Sep 6, 2011 11:41AM

If you ever plan to lead a PowerPoint presentation projected on giant white board orbiting the Earth (we'll leave the logistics of that one up to you) there's only one laser that will get the job done -- Wicked Lasers' S3 Krypton. The Guinness Record-pending laser produces about 86 million lux and can be seen from up to 85 miles away, well beyond the edge of our atmosphere. Of course, at roughly 8,000-times the brightness of the Sun, serious safety precautions are needed when operating the S3. Goggles are a must (and bundled with the handheld laser), while sensors and a microprocessor regulate current to keep the tube of aluminum from overheating in your hands. The top end model is available now for $1,000 but, if blinding astronauts isn't on your agenda, lower-powered versions can be had starting at $300. Check out the video after the break.

Via: SlashGear
Source: Wicked Lasers

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/06/file-expert-android-app-taps-nfc-to-hasten-your-bluetooth-data-t/

File Expert Android app taps NFC to hasten your Bluetooth data transfers

By Lydia Leavitt posted Sep 7, 2011 5:59AM

What may seem like technology thought up for insert-some-Bond-flick-here, the File Expert Android app has added NFC functionality to its latest build -- making single-tap transfers a new reality. Like the previous rendition, it uses Bluetooth to send data, but a friendly bump replaces the traditional pairing process, speeding up the exchange dramatically (like we said, perfect for overworked spies). We've seen magic like this before, and we'll certainly see more like it as NFC becomes more ubiquitous, but what's next? NFC-to-NFC file transfers, no middleman required. Fist bump to that.

[Thanks, Binoy]

Via: Compixels
Source: Android Market

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/06/researchers-demo-full-duplex-wireless-double-the-throughput-wit/

Researchers demo full-duplex wireless: double the throughput with no new towers

By Terrence O'Brien posted Sep 7, 2011 9:38AM

Back in February researchers at Stanford first taunted us with the possibility of simultaneous, two-way data transmission on the same frequency. Now some folks at Rice University are edging full-duplex communication closer to reality. By the time carriers get around to rolling out 4.5G networks, engineers could potentially double throughput without adding more cell towers and using only existing mobile hardware. With an extra antenna and some fancy software tricks, which allow the device to ignore locally produced signals, the Rice team was able to produce a connection ten-times stronger than previously published studies. Since the technology is based on existing MIMO setups, it may also prove the shortest route to asynchronous full-duplex transmissions. That means you'll be able to upload ill advised videos of your drunken antics (and suffer the consequences) that much faster, without having to pause the latest Maru clip. Check out the PR after the break.

[Image credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University]

Show full PR text

Rice breakthrough could double wireless capacity with no new towers
Rice's 'full-duplex' technology requires little hardware, could be ready for 4.5G networks

HOUSTON -- (Sept. 6, 2011) -- The days of waiting for smartphones to upload video may be numbered. Rice University engineering researchers have made a breakthrough that could allow wireless phone companies to double throughput on their networks without adding a single cell tower.

Rice's new "full-duplex" technology allows wireless devices like cell phones and electronic tablets to both "talk" and "listen" to wireless cell towers on the same frequency -- something that requires two frequencies today.

"Our solution requires minimal new hardware, both for mobile devices and for networks, which is why we've attracted the attention of just about every wireless company in the world," said Ashutosh Sabharwal, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice. "The bigger change will be developing new wireless standards for full-duplex. I expect people may start seeing this when carriers upgrade to 4.5G or 5G networks in just a few years."

In 2010, Sabharwal and Rice colleagues Melissa Duarte and Chris Dick published the first paper showing that full-duplex was possible . That set off a worldwide race to demonstrate that the technology could actually be used in a real network. This summer, Sabharwal and Rice's Achaleshwar Sahai and Gaurav Patel set new performance records < http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.0607> with a real-time demo of the technology that produced signal quality at least 10 times better than any previously published result.

"We showed that our approach could support higher throughput and better link reliability than anything else that's been demonstrated, which is a plus for wireless carriers," Sabharwal said. "On the device side, we've shown that we can add full duplex as an additional mode on existing hardware. Device makers love this because real estate inside mobile devices is at a premium, and it means they don't have to add new hardware that only supports full duplex."

To explain why full-duplex wireless was long thought impossible for wireless networks, Sabharwal uses the analogy of two people standing far apart inside an otherwise empty arena. If each shouts to the other at the same time, neither can hear what the other is saying. The easy solution is to have only one person speak at a time, and that's what happens on two-way radios where only one person may speak at a given time. Cell phones achieve two-way communications by using two different frequencies to send and listen.

Rice's team overcame the full-duplex hurdle by employing an extra antenna and some computing tricks. In the shouting analogy, the result is that the shouter cannot hear himself, and therefore hears the only other sound in the arena -- the person shouting from far away.

"We send two signals such that they cancel each other at the receiving antenna -- the device ears," Sabharwal said. "The canceling effect is purely local, so the other node can still hear what we're sending."

He said the cancellation idea is relatively simple in theory and had been proposed some time ago. But no one had figured a way to implement the idea at low cost and without requiring complex new radio hardware.

"We repurposed antenna technology called MIMO, which are common in today's devices," Sabharwal said. "MIMO stands for 'multiple-input multiple-output' and it uses several antennas to improve overall performance. We took advantage of the multiple antennas for our full-duplex scheme, which is the main reason why all wireless carriers are very comfortable with our technology."

Sabharwal said Rice is planning to roll its full-duplex innovations into its "wireless open-access research platform," or WARP. WARP is a collection of programmable processors, transmitters and other gadgets that make it possible for wireless researchers to test new ideas without building new hardware for each test. Sabharwal said adding full-duplex to WARP will allow other researchers to start innovating on top of Rice's breakthrough.

"There are groups that are already using WARP and our open-source software to compete with us," he said. "This is great because our vision for the WARP project is to enable never-before-possible research and to allow anyone to innovate freely with minimal startup effort."

Sabharwal's team has gone one step further and achieved asynchronous full-duplex too - that is one wireless node can start receiving a signal while it's in the midst of transmitting. Asynchronous transmission is import for carriers wishing to maximize traffic on their networks, and Rice's team is the first to demonstrate the technology.

"We've also developed a preliminary theory that explains why our system is working the way that it is," Sabharwal said. "That's also important for carriers and device makers, because engineers aren't likely to implement something like this without a clear understanding of fundamental tradeoffs."

###

Rice's research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Roberto Rocca Education Program and Xilinx Incorporated.

Greece may ask for second bailout to expire earlier: report

Greece may ask for second bailout to expire earlier: report

Sep 6, 3:19 PM

ATHENS (Reuters) - Athens may ask its euro zone partners that its second bailout, agreed by EU leaders in July, expire a year earlier than currently planned because of a higher than expected deficit, newspaper Kathimerini said on Tuesday.

"Athens is expected to propose that the new aid program does not last until 2014 but until the end of 2013, so that the 109 billion euros are sufficient to cover Greece's increased(financing) needs, because of the higher budget deficit," the newspaper said, without citing sources.

The paper reiterated a report it published on Saturday that the government wants to ease the deficit targets of 7.6 and 6.5 percent of GDP for 2011 and 2012 to help the economy emerge from a three-year recession.

"The smaller reduction in the deficit will be offset by a larger effort in the last two years of the program," the paper said.

EU leaders agreed on July 21 to extend a second, 109-billion euro bailout to Greece, on top of a 110 billion euros rescue package the debt-choked country obtained in May 2010.

Germany and others have said it is vital that the bailout and other measures are passed quickly by parliaments, but there have been signs of problems, including a row over the provision of collateral for Greece's additional loans.

(Reporting By Harry Papachristou; editing by Patrick Graham)

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Dell and Baidu team up for tablets, mobiles

Dell and Baidu team up for tablets, mobiles

Sep 6, 9:07 PM

By Melanie Lee

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Dell Inc and China's top search engine Baidu Inc plan to jointly develop tablet computers and mobile phones, targeting the Chinese market dominated by Apple Inc and Lenovo.

China is one of the fastest growing markets for tablets and is home to more than 900 million mobile phone subscribers, but analysts were skeptical that the partnership would unseat Apple as the dominant force in the market.

"I suspect this is just Dell, who has a lot of problems on the mobile and tablet front, grasping at straws to get any kind of publicity that it can to make its product more attractive," said Michael Clendenin, managing director of technology consultancy RedTech Advisors.

"Ultimately in China, I still think it is Apple's game, still for the iPad and iPhone."

Dell declined to give a timeline for the launch of the devices, but local media reported on Tuesday, quoting sources, that it may be as early as November.

Baidu launched a new mobile application platform last week and offered a glimpse of its upcoming mobile operating system, which it hopes will serve a growing number of users accessing the Internet from smartphones and tablet computers.

The company said it already had partnerships with Dell and other device makers and declined to comment on the new tie-up. Dell said the partnership with Baidu involved the company's new mobile platform.

Baidu has built on its dominance of China's search market significantly since Google's high-profile exit last year citing hacking and censorship concerns.

Baidu's Nasdaq-listed shares are up nearly 50 percent so far this year, giving it a market value of around $50 billion.

BUSY SPACE

A Dell-Baidu tie-up would be the latest in a series of developments reshaping the mobile devices market.

Last month, Google said it would buy Motorola Mobility Holdings for $12.5 billion, putting Google into a lower-margin manufacturing business and pitting it against as many as 38 other handset companies that use Google's Android software.

"Dell has got nothing to lose. They don't have a big mobile presence, so by partnering Baidu, they will probably get some momentum for their mobile products," said Sandy Shen, a research director with Gartner.

Dell has chosen China to launch new products before. In June, Dell said it had chosen to launch its new 10-inch Android tablet in China this summer, passing up on a U.S. and European launch, in a sign of the market's growing importance to the company.

Dell's China sales grew 22 percent in the first quarter while its retail presence in China exceeds 10,000 sales points.

In 2009, Dell announced it will enter the smartphone market starting in China before moving into Brazil.

(Additional reporting by Kelvin Soh in HONG KONG and Clare Jim in Taipei; Writing by Anshuman Daga; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Derek Caney)

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U.S. solar firm Solyndra files for bankruptcy

U.S. solar firm Solyndra files for bankruptcy

Sep 7, 1:12 AM

By Tom Hals

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - Solyndra LLC, a solar panel maker that received $535 million in federal loan guarantees, filed for bankruptcy, the third U.S. solar firm to succumb to pressure from Chinese rivals in recent weeks.

Solyndra, which also received more than $700 million in venture capital funding, said it will try to find a buyer quickly to avoid a firesale liquidation.

The solar industry has been in turmoil this year as a glut of panels has sent prices plummeting 25 percent. Manufacturing capacity expanded just as government austerity measures in Europe eliminated subsidies and undercut demand.

Solyndra cut prices to try to compete but said in court papers that it was unable to match the extended payment terms offered by foreign competitors.

Last week the Fremont, California-based company said it had suspended operations and laid off 1,100 workers.

Solyndra's bankruptcy filing on Tuesday follows similar filings by former Wall Street high flyer Evergreen Solar Inc and SpectraWatt Inc, a private company that was backed by Intel Corp.

Even industry heavyweights such as China's Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd and U.S.-based First Solar Inc are struggling with dwindling profits, while small, up-and-coming solar companies are finding it increasingly difficult to stay afloat.

Solyndra said in documents filed in Delaware's bankruptcy court that it plans to spend the next four weeks trying to drum up interest among potential U.S. and foreign buyers to avoid shutting down permanently and selling its assets piecemeal to repay its creditors.

If it finds a buyer, could lead the rehiring of some of its laid off workers. One of those workers filed a class action lawsuit against the company in the bankruptcy court for violating the federal WARN Act, which requires larger companies to give 60 days advance notice of layoffs.

The company did not return a call for comment.

The company was founded in 2005 to commercialize its light-weight panels, which are made up of cylinders rather than conventional flat panels. Solyndra was touted by MIT Technology Review as one of the 50 most innovative companies in the world and was visited last year by President Barack Obama.

Solyndra raised more than $700 million by selling preferred shares to venture capitalists, including Argonaut Ventures LLC of San Francisco, which owns about 39 percent of the company. Argonaut is also among the company's first-lien lenders, meaning it will be the first to be repaid, ahead of the U.S. government.

The company has secured debts of $783.8 million, according to court documents.

Other venture backers include Madrone Partners, USVP Venture Partners and Rockport Capital Partners, according to court documents.

Argonaut and Madrone plan to provide Solyndra with $4 million in debtor-in-possession financing, at 15 percent interest, to get the company through its four-week search for a buyer, according to court documents.

The company must pay off the $4 million bankruptcy loan as well as the $69.3 million owed to the first-lien lenders before it begins to repay the government-guaranteed loan from the U.S. Federal Financing Bank, a unit of the U.S. Treasury.

The case is Solyndra LLC, Case No. 11-12799, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware.

(Reporting by Tom Hals; additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad and John Wallace)

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Gold jumps to record on Swiss euro peg, then eases

Gold jumps to record on Swiss euro peg, then eases

Sep 7, 3:55 AM

By Barani Krishnan and Amanda Cooper

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Gold jumped to a record high on Tuesday after Switzerland pegged its currency to the euro, before closing down as investors took profits.

Analysts said they still expect the precious metal to chart new peaks on worsening euro zone troubles.

The spot price of gold - which tracks global trades in bullion - and U.S. gold futures set all-time highs above $1,920 an ounce after the Swiss National Bank imposed an exchange rate cap on the soaring franc to stave off a recession. The SNB aims to keep the franc at or above 1.20 to the euro by buying other currencies in unlimited quantities.

Profit-taking pushed bullion and gold futures down more than $50 an ounce soon after that record and prices ultimately closed lower.

At 3:35 p.m. EDT (1935 GMT), bullion hovered at $1,880 an ounce, down 1 percent from Monday's late afternoon trade in New York. It was also off the record high of $1,920.30 seen earlier on Tuesday.

U.S. gold futures' benchmark December contract settled at $1,873.30 an ounce, down $3.60 or 0.2 percent from Friday's close ahead of the Labor Day holiday. Earlier, December gold hit an all-time peak of $1,923.70.

Profit-taking aside, analysts blamed the reversal on the U.S. dollar, which rallied as the Swiss currency fell.

Safe-haven buying of gold further evaporated after surprisingly positive U.S. services sector data in August.

Gold bulls remained convinced of the precious metal's upside potential, saying it was within striking range of the $2,000-per-ounce target.

"I think gold is headed for $2,000," said Frank McGhee, head of precious metals trading at Integrated Brokerage Services in Chicago.

"In theory, this could actually happen in a matter of days. In reality, if this type of intervention action was taken and was ultimately seen to be ineffective, then the market will get new strength from that. Ultimately, intervention can only cause markets to pause, not change their direction."

Analysts said the SNB should be able to defend the Swiss franc at 1.20 per euro for now, as it can print unlimited currency. But long-term success depended on efforts in the euro zone to deal with debt problems, given the relative strength of the Swiss economy and government finances.

The peg knocked about 8 percent off the value of the franc against the euro. The Swiss currency had soared by a third since Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, as investors sought a safe haven from financial market turmoil.

While gold would benefit from the franc's exclusion from the safe-haven club, that did not make it a one-way trade for the precious metal, some analysts said.

"I don't think gold becomes the ultimate safe haven," said Dennis Gartman, author of financial markets newsletter The Gartman Letter and a regular commentator on bullion.

"Safe means stability. What we're seeing in the gold market is anything but stability. Anything that moves as gold has moved today - from $1,920 all the way down to $1,870 in a course of five minutes - is hardly safe."

Gold's 34 percent rally so far this year, its largest yearly gain since 1979, has been fueled largely by investor worries over debt in the United States and euro zone.

But recent inflows into gold show investors have exercised restraint. Exchange-traded gold funds, which back investors' money with bullion purchases, saw their holdings in gold fall by nearly 2.5 million ounces over the last month to reach a six-week low of 67.4 million ounces.

(Editing by Marguerita Choy)

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Wikitude points you to Wikipedia entries near you using geo-location

The developer calls Wikitude a "World Browser," an app that helps you explore your surroundings and view information about landmarks near you.

Simply hold up your smartphone and small icons will appear that represent things like Wikipedia articles, geo-tagged twitter posts, ATMs, and more depending on how you customize it.

Wikitude tends to work well in big cities with many POI's (points of interest), but not as well in smaller cities and towns (even if they contain historic places).
Price: free from the App Store

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-augmented-reality-apps-for-iphone-and-ios-2011-3#wikitude-points-you-to-wikipedia-entries-near-you-using-geo-location-1#ixzz1XEjdYLNk

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