iOS Maps: 5 Reasons Apple Broke Up With Google And Built Its Own App

Recent reports claim that Apple ended its iOS mobile maps contract with Google a year early. But the result, Apple's home-brewed Maps app, has left many users wishing the two companies had stayed on good terms.

Sure, Maps comes with new features that weren't available on the Google-made version for iOS, such as spoken navigation directions and 3D views of cities. But Apple's new Maps app has become infamous for its quirks (misnaming cities and countries, moving famous landmarks, distorting landmasses and manmade structures in 3D mode) and its lack of integrated public transit directions.

Some have called Maps "appalling" and a "huge step backward;" others have been less harsh and have labeled the app "a decent effort for a first pass."

Why would Apple do something like this? To answer this question, we've combed the wisdom of some of the web's top Apple watchers. Flip though our gallery (below) to view opinions from the New York Times, AllThingsD, Daring Fireball, Slate and The Verge. Then, read on to view our gallery of the worst fails spotted in Apple's Maps app.

What do you think of Apple Maps? Has it made you late or gotten you lost? Do you have horror stories to share? Or rave reviews? Let us know: email us at technology@huffingtonpost.com or tweet @HuffPostTech.

Google Maps For Android Was Getting Better Than The iOS Version
Chris Ziegler of The Verge recently reported that Apple pulled out of its contract with Google over a year early, which would explain why Google didn't have a standalone maps app ready to go when iOS 6 launched without Google Maps. Ziegler posits that Google Maps for Android had advanced too far ahead of the iOS version of Google Maps -- and Apple 

Apple Didn't Like Google Calling The Shots
AllThingsD's John Paczkowski points to Google's unwillingness to share its spoken turn-by-turn navigation data as the source of the eventual break between Google and Apple on maps in iOS.

The Timing Was Ideal For Apple, Even If It Meant A Half-Baked App

Well-sourced Apple enthusiast John Gruber speculates that Apple may have given itself the upper hand by terminating is partnership with Google a year early (instead of waiting until mid-2013 for it to expire). "Apple wasn’t going to wait to negotiate until their backs were to the wall with the currently-shipping version of iOS reliant on Google Maps when the old deal expired," Gruber argues. It was in Apple's best interest, he writes, to release its own Maps app with a major iOS release, rather than waiting for the Google contract to expire while a new iOS release was still being prepped. 

Sure, Apple's Maps are being lampooned across the web; but at least Apple got what it wanted when it wanted it. Right? ...Right?

Apple Wanted The Best Maps App, And It Wanted It All For Itself

Slate's Matthew Yglesias argues that Apple dropped Google Maps in the hopes that Apple could one day offer a superior (and native) mapping service in iOS. For now, Apple is relying on its brand power to carry it through the rocky launch of its sub-par Maps app. With a little bit of luck, the company's loyal customer base will stick around long enough until Apple improves ist Maps. 

"[W]hat they [Apple] achieve by ending the relationship [with Google] early is a chance to some day—hopefully soon—have the very best maps experience in the world," writes Yglesias. "Under iOS 5 they didn't have that, and as long as Apple depended on Google they were never going to have it."

Apple's Break May Have Made Life A Little Harder For Google

Although critics and users have panned the glitches in Maps' interactive Flyover feature, the 3D bird's-eye view option has also been called "stunning" and "lovely" (when it works properly). The New York Times suggests that, although Google has a years-long head start on mapping applications, the company has a lot of work to do before it can offer a 3D mapping option similar to what's available on Apple's mobile Maps app.

From the Times: "Google has 3-D images in Google Earth, which is a separate app with a separate code base from Google Maps, so it would take some time to combine the two." 

It seems that Google's facing a steep, rocky road as it rolls toward it release of its Google Maps iOS app, which the Times predicts will be ready at he end of 2012.

What Makes Google’s Maps So Good

Wow. Nothing makes you appreciate something like losing it.

Nobody ever raved about Google’s mapping app for phones until they saw how hard it was for Apple to come up with a rival. In my Times column today, I wrote about the challenges Apple has faced in replacing its iPhone GPS/mapping app, substituting its own data sources for Google’s. I noted that the new app is beautiful and will be really terrific someday — once it does a better job of incorporating all of its various data sources.


The Times’s technology columnist, David Pogue, keeps you on top of the industry in his free, weekly e-mail newsletter.

In researching the story, I interviewed representatives from Apple and Google. At Google, I spoke with Manik Gupta, senior product manager for Google Maps, and Daniel Graf, director of Google Maps for Mobile.

What I realized is that mapping the world is a staggering, gigantic, vast, inconceivably huge and ambitious project. It represents years and years of hand-tuning and manual effort.

I was surprised to learn that, like Apple, Google began its efforts by licensing petabytes of data from outside geodata companies.

They include TomTom, the same company that Apple’s using. (The other big map vendor is NavTeq, which Nokia bought a few years ago; I guess that explains why Apple and Google aren’t using NavTeq’s data. Too bad — by all accounts, the map app on Nokia’s Windows Phone is pretty great; I’ll be trying it out shortly.)

But that’s just the basic data. “We start with licensed stuff, then expand and enhance it,” Mr. Gupta said. Google has supplemented it with years of additional data gathering, involving its Street View cars, satellite data and human labor.

And it shows. As of 2008, for example, onto those digital maps of the world Google had overlaid 13 million miles of turn-by-turn directions in 22 countries; today, it has 26 million miles of guidance in 187 countries.

“It’s fair to say that in the mapping world, you can’t just throw money at it and then you have it the next day. This takes time,” Mr. Gupta said. “It took a lot of time to get where we’re at.” He said that even now, Google is far from done; error reports still flow in by the thousands.

Many of them come from Google Map Maker, a Web site that is live in 200 countries (and just started in the United States) that lets average citizens make corrections to Google’s maps as they find them. You can, for example, draw a line to represent a new road.

Like Apple, Google also collects location and movement data (anonymously) from millions of smartphones as they’re driven around; from this information, Apple and Google can determine when, for example, a one-way street has been mislabeled in its data.

You may be familiar with Street View, a Google exclusive that lets you stand at a certain spot on the map and “look around.” You can see a photo of the address you seek, and use your mouse to turn right or left and actually move through the still photos. It’s an amazing way to see what it’s like to be at that spot.

Street View isn’t available for the entire world, but you’d be surprised at how many inhabited areas are covered: Google’s GPS- and camera-equipped Street View cars have, so far, driven five million miles through 3,000 cities in 40 countries.

What you may not realize, however, is that those photos are far more than just helpful references for you, the viewer. Google’s software analyzes what’s in those photos. Its image-recognition software can read the text on street signs, storefront signs, hotel names and so on. It can tell a major road from a minor one, a single-lane road from multilane and one-way streets from two-way streets. Street View, in other words, generates still more useful data for Google’s maps.

I asked Google why its satellite photos don’t seem to display the same jarring seams that are showing up on Apple’s — obvious borders between side-by-side tiles that were taken at different times of the year or in different weather.

“When you look at Google Earth,” I was told, “you can see that the globe is made from a mosaic of aerial and satellite photos, often taken in different lighting and weather. We license these photos from multiple providers, possibly the same ones that Apple uses; but we’ve had the time to come up with a smoothing algorithm. In January, we introduced a new way to render them, smooth them out, make them seamless. But by no means have we perfected this.”

On this call, Google pointed out a new feature that I hadn’t seen before: compass mode. On an Android phone, you can call up a location like Trafalgar Square in London. You hold the phone in front of you to see a Street View-like photo of the scene — and as you look left, right, up, down, or behind you, the view changes, as though you’re looking through a magic window at another place in the world. You can even use Compass mode to look around inside places — I tried Delfina, the San Francisco restaurant — to get a feel of the décor before you go there.

Can you imagine how powerful Compass mode will be once it covers most of the earth’s developed areas? It will give you a sort of instant teleportation, a way to travel without travel, a sense of a place without having to go there.

What I’ve learned from this deep dive into the making of map apps is that you can’t just license a bunch of data, bake at 350 degrees and come up with a useful tool. Gathering the data is only the starting point; from there, it takes years to reconcile it, correct it and make it useful. (This Atlantic article offers a good look at the kind of hand-tuning that Google’s minions do constantly.)

By the way, let me be clear: I have no doubt that Apple’s Maps app will get there. We’ve seen this movie before — remember MobileMe? It, too, was very rough when it made its debut. Today, its successor, iCloud, is smooth and sensationally useful. Maps will be, too.

But I suspect that Apple has just realized the same thing I have: that we may live on a small blue planet, but digitally representing every road, building and point of interest is a task of almost unimaginable difficulty. Let’s be grateful that another major player has just joined the attempt.

Via: Pogue

Via: HuffingTonPost

Space shuttle Endeavour makes final flight

The US space shuttle Endeavour took its final flight on Friday, making a spectacular series of flypasts over California before landing in Los Angeles where it will retire near its birthplace. 

 

 Shuttle Endeavour lands in Los Angeles Space shuttle Endeavour flew over California landmarks including the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory before landing at the airport. (Raw Vision).

 
Piggy backed by a specially fitted Boeing 747, the shuttle flew over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge before heading south to take in the Hollywood sign and Disneyland, later landing at LA International Airport (LAX).

"It's so cool, and so sad," said Todd Unger, 28, who was among thousands who camped out from the early hours at the Griffith Observatory overlooking the city and the nearby iconic hilltop Tinseltown sign.

 

Cars were parked bumper-to-bumper up the winding roads leading up to the observatory, as Los Angeles residents turned out en masse in several parts of the city to witness Endeavour's final flight.

The shuttle had spent the night at Edwards Air Force Base north of Los Angeles, the last leg after a two-day trip across the country from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Before reaching the West Coast, it flew over Tucson, Arizona, to honour former lawmaker Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a horrific shooting last year and whose astronaut husband Mark Kelly commanded Endeavour's final mission.

"It was pretty spectacular...the people of Tucson got an incredible view of this remarkable machine," Kelly told CNN.

"It's really a testament to American ingenuity," he said.

The shuttle will now spend a few weeks at a United Airlines hangar at LAX, before being transferred to the California Science Center, where it will go on display on October 30.

Endeavour, which flew more than 115 million miles (185 million kilometres) in its two-decade career, completed its final mission last year.

After NASA brought an end to the 30-year shuttle program last year, major US cities battled for the right to house the shuttles. Enterprise, the prototype that never flew into space, is now on permanent display on the runway of the Intrepid aircraft carrier in New York.

The Kennedy Space Center will keep Atlantis, and Discovery is on display at a museum outside Washington.

Two other shuttles were destroyed in flight. Challenger disintegrated shortly after liftoff in 1986 and Columbia broke apart on re-entry to Earth in 2003. Both disasters killed everyone on board.

Endeavour's trip to Los Angeles is a homecoming of sorts. It was built in Palmdale, north of Los Angeles, as a replacement for Challenger.

Its last, 12-mile road trip to its final destination is scheduled to take two days, starting on October 12.

That operation is not without controversy: locals have protested because some 400 trees are being cut down along the route, and power lines and other obstacles reconfigured, to make way for the giant winged space craft.

The California Science Center has promised to replant four times as many trees as are removed.

"Before the Endeavour lands at its final destination, there's one more leg on its amazing journey," LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said on Friday.

"In less than a month, we'll have a chance to see a site as impressive as today's flyover - the Endeavour travelling through our streets and hundreds of thousands of people cheer it on."

Space shuttle Endeavour: 

Thousands await final pass over L.A.

As the space shuttle Endeavour passed over Northern California on its farewell tour, hundreds of people poured into Griffith Park, lined up on the bluffs at El Segundo and crammed onto the Santa Monica Pier in anticipation of witnessing the shuttle's final flight before it lands at LAX and is groomed to become a museum showpiece.

Along the bluffs at El Segundo, dozens of people arrived as dawn broke, some camped out, others seated on folding chairs, others standing. By midmorning, hundreds looked out over the south runway at LAX.

Patrick Hill, 53, of Sunland, said he came to honor of his father-in-law, who worked on the shuttle at the Palmdale facility. Hill said he and his wife created a collage of photographs of all the space shuttles but especially Endeavour.

TIMELOG: Endeavour's final journey

NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with the space shuttle Endeavour securely mounted on top touches down at Edwards Air Force Base after third leg of its four-segment final ferry flight from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 20, 2012. (Credit: NASA)

“He would be proud to see all this,” Hill said of his father-in-law, who died in March. “I’m overwhelmed. He loved this stuff.”

Nearby were three women who set up their viewing spot at 4 a.m. Kristin Jarman, 41, from Brea, her sister Karin Landry, 38, of Danville, Calif., and their friend Maria Lang 47, who lives in Trabuco Canyon. Jarman said they’re “traveling space geeks,” noting that Landry interned in 1999 at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Dan Roufberg, 49, works as a heavy equipment mechanic at LAX but said he wasn’t about to miss this. He planned to take Endeavour’s journey, part of a scrapbook he is making for his 6-month-old son.

“There’ll be something nice for my son to have. This is the end of an era. I want my son to be aware of it.”

PHOTOS: Space shuttle Endeavour 1991-2012

At Griffith Park, enthusiasm swelled as the flyover drew closer.

When Artin Gharibian, an assistant park services attendant, arrived for work about 5:45 a.m., there were already hundreds of people waiting to pick out their seats to view Endeavour's passage over the observatory.

"This is the job to have," he said, smiling. "I would have been here anyway."

Carla Torres of La Mirada arrived with her husband and four of her five children, parking nearly half a mile down the road from the observatory, even though she arrived at 7 a.m.

Matthew Jordan Smith of Los Angeles showed up around 6:30 a.m. with a new mega-zoom lens he bought to capture the moment. "It's not every day you see this,” Smith said.

On the Queen Mary, shuttle fans parked themselves on the sun deck, along the historic ship's right flank.

Francisco and Toni Perez of Cerritos took the day off to watch Endeavour's final airborne minutes.

"I'm extremely happy," Toni Perez said. "It's not packed, we'll get a good view of it and we won't have to fight traffic when we leave."

SUBMIT PHOTOS: Upload your shuttle photos here

Greg Low pulled his two daughters, Crystal and Kiana, from school to watch what he figured would be both a historic and educational moment.

"It's an educational field trip," Low said. "They can learn about this in a classroom, but it's nice to see it fly and then see it at a museum."

And at the Santa Monica Pier, long before the signature Ferris wheel began spinning, scores of people waited to witness the flyover.

Richard Castro of La Puente arrived early to snap photos for his grandson, who he said is fascinated by space. Ethan Lee, 8, had to be in school, but Castro said he was enjoying the benefits of retirement.

"Before I couldn't miss a day of work," the former truck driver said. "But now it's simple. This is the last flight, and if you can make it, you've got to be there."

Join the Times’ William Hennigan and Scott Gold at 11:30 a.m. for a live discussion with Marco Caceres, senior analyst and director of space studies at aerospace defense industry consultant Teal Group, and Ron Garan, a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force and NASA astronaut who flew on the Endeavour and lived on the International Space Station.

Via:Smh
Via:LAtimesBlog

Woman loses 76 pounds on Starbucks diet

The Starbucks Diet: How One Woman Dropped 
76 Pounds on Coffee and BistroBoxes

 

Christine Hall went from a size Grande to a size Tall. That's Starbucks-speak for a dramatic weight loss. The Virginia-based law librarian has spent the past two years buying almost all of her meals from the coffee chain. On Thursday, in an interview with The Today Show, Hall claimed to have lost 76 pounds by sticking to a self-designed Starbucks-only diet. That's some serious brand-commitment.

It all started some two years back when Hall was rejected as a kidney donor because of her weight. At 200 pounds, an invasive surgery was too risky for her 5 foot 4 inch frame. So she turned to an unexpected place for help: a fast food chain. (And no, it wasn't Subway.)

Starbucks strikes deal with cupcake stars

Starbucks, the home of the whipped cream coffee drink, is not exactly a dieter's haven. But with the chain conveniently located near Hall's two jobs, and a calorie count listed on every item behind the sneeze-guard, the 66-year-old saw the potential.
On an average day, she'd start with a 145 calorie breakfast of oatmeal and coffee and grab a bistro box of fruit and cheese for lunch. For dinner, she'd dig into a panini.


Starbucks is diet-friendly? Really? (Getty Images)

She began tracking her calorie intake in May of 2010 and by November, she had dropped 40 pounds thanks to a lot of bistro boxes.

Restricting her diet to as little as 876 calories a day in order to drop 2 pounds a week, couldn't have been easy for Hall. In the past few years, Starbucks has become more of a milkshake shop than a coffee bar. A 24 oz Iced Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha (Whole Milk, Whipped Cream) will set you back 700 calories, and that's without the side of food. What's another 490 calories from a walnut zucchini muffin at that point?

Starbucks secret menu food

Most of the bakery options glistening behind the counter range between 350 and 450 calories. But heartier offerings are a better investment. Paninis and sandwiches range between 340 and 460 calories, while bistro boxes of fruit and cheese or veggies and chicken range from 220 to 480 calories. It's a great option for a low-calorie quickie lunch, but if you're forking over Starbucks dollars three times a day, it could get pricey.

Still, Hall has zero regrets about her diet. A year after she was rejected from being an organ donor, she was given the okay by doctors to partake in a 32-person altruistic kidney swap.
Two years later, she's another 40 pounds lighter, weighing in at 114 pounds. She says she feels like she's 15 again. "I don't hurt anymore," Hall, who suffered from sleep apnea and joint problems at her heaviest, told The Today show. "I sleep like a baby and I have tons of energy. It's great."

Not everyone is as positive about the Starbucks diet. According to Marjorie Nolan Cohn, the national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, the diet is a "set up for disaster." Particularly concerning, says Cohen, is the "lack of variety, which sets you up for malnutrition, even if you are eating enough calories."

"Starbucks has a lot of good options, but if that is all you are eating for two years you are severely limiting your intake," she tells Yahoo! Shine. "I think most other people would get bored and end up binging at some point. Not to mention the cost. This is simply not a realistic 'diet' for most people."

Consider Brett Bruce, a 35-year-old marketing consultant and father of two, who embarked on his own Starbucks diet in March of 2010. On a 30-day challenge to lose weight without exercising, he subsisted strictly on Starbucks food in the hopes of dropping the pounds. His blog starbucksdiet.com, which tracked his progress, ended with a disappointing update.

"I do feel as if I may have plateau'd a bit," he writes on day 21, after dropping about 6 pounds from his 217 pound frame in the first 2 weeks. While he did credit the chain with getting him to eat more fruit than he ordinarily would have, he admits, "my weight has remained the same all week." That post, uploaded 9 days before his challenge ended, was his last update.

Via:Yahoo

Julio Cesar Chavez vs. Sergio Martinez: round-by-round updates

Sergio Martinez Escapes; Beats Chavez Jr. by Unanimous Decision

For Sergio Martinez, it was 11.5 rounds of a boxing clinic and 1.5 minutes of sheer terror.

Martinez defeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. by unanimous decision on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. With the victory, he claimed the WBC middleweight championship and retained The Ring Magazine title.

For the first 11 rounds, the issue was never in doubt.

Martinez outboxed, outpunched and outclassed his younger opponent. He used movement to frustrate him and gave him no openings to get into a rhythm, Chavez, known as a slow starter, struggled to find openings, and when he did, he seemed reluctant to let his hands go. Heading into the final round, it was totally justified if you had scored all 11 previous rounds for Martinez.

And then, it happened, or at least, came close. 

With the fight seemingly out of reach, Chavez nearly channeled one of his legendary father's finest moments when he stunned, knocked down and nearly knocked out Martinez in the 12th round.

It was an absolutely stunning turn of events, given how one-sided the previous rounds had been. It was nearly a direct replay of Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., who was well behind on the scorecards going into the last round, knocking out Meldrick Taylor in 1990.

"I was 20 seconds away from knocking him out. I started way too late," Chavez told Max Kellerman in the ring after the fight.

"I didn't really get started until the eighth round."

But, it wasn't to be as a badly hurt Martinez, who showed his guts by refusing to hold and continuing to fight, stayed on his feet to meet the final bell.

The scorecards were never in doubt with Martinez winning 117-110, 118-109, 118-109.

Both fighters showed tremendous class toward each other in the post-fight interviews, especially in light of how personal and heated the promotion had been.

"He fought a great fight and he was a lot tougher than I expected," Martinez told Kellerman. "He showed great heart."

Martinez and Chavez both stated their desire for a rematch which could take place early next year.

"If Julio wants a rematch, we'll do a rematch," Martinez said.

One thing is for sure, if there is a rematch, Julio better fight for more than a minute and a half.

 

Martinez escapes Chavez with title

LAS VEGAS -- By the halfway point of the fight, it was obvious that young Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was going to need a miracle. He was going to have to reach into the family playbook of his famous Hall of Fame father, all-time great Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., the way his pop had against Meldrick Taylor all those years ago.

In that classic 1990 fight, Taylor was winning in dominant fashion before Chavez Sr. infamously stopped him with two seconds left.

And you know what? The kid almost got it done in the same fashion against lineal middleweight champion Sergio Martinez before an electric, sold-out crowd of 19,186 -- an arena record for boxing -- on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

After dealing with so much uncertainty ahead of Saturday's bout, Guillermo Rigondeaux proved to be a sure thing in a win over Roberto Marroquin, writes Dan Rafael.

In one of the most dramatic finishes in boxing history, Chavez, way behind on the scorecards, dropped Martinez with his bread and butter -- a ferocious left hook -- with about 90 seconds to go.

Martinez was marked up and badly hurt. He made it to his feet and was going to have run out the clock as the crowd went berserk.

Could he survive the way Taylor could not against the old man?

It was touch and go because Martinez went down a few seconds later, but it was properly ruled a slip by referee Tony Weeks. But make no mistake, Martinez was in trouble, undoubtedly praying to hear the final bell.

But he hung on against Chavez, who had been whipped for the previous 11 rounds, and finally heard it ring.

Once the fight was over, the scores -- 118-109, 118-109 and 117-110 -- were academic. What people will remember forever are the final seconds of the fight.

Lou DiBella, Martinez's promoter, summed it up perfectly.

"You saw a boxing clinic for 11 rounds and you saw an epic last round," DiBella said. "I don't know how he held on. That was epic. That was a great night for boxing."

Chavez knew he let the fight escape him by not finishing Martinez when he had him in such bad shape.

"I was 20 seconds away from knocking him out," said Chavez, who was busted up and appeared to have a broken, bloody nose. "I just started way too late. I thought I could do the whole fight what I did the last round."

He could not even come close to that, because Martinez (50-2-2, 28 KOs) had taken him to the woodshed for virtually the entire fight.

"The speed was the difference," said Freddie Roach, Chavez's trainer. "I told him to go out and exchange with him every round. I knew Martinez was good. I just didn't know how good. Chavez can do better. This was a good lesson for him.

"He needed to let his hands go sooner. I told him in the 10th round, he better start fighting or I was going to stop it."

Chavez (46-1-1, 32 KOs) barely threw any punches early on, and Martinez pounded him and easily outboxed him, until the 12th round.

"Chavez fought a great fight and he was a lot tougher than I expected," Martinez said. "He showed a great, great heart. [The knockdown] was a mistake. Julio took advantage and he dropped me. It is great for boxing to have a champion like me willing to fight anyone."

It was Mexican Independence Day weekend, and Chavez had ample support from the boisterous crowd, but all the chants of "Mexico! Mexico!" could do nothing for him.

Martinez, with considerable support from Argentines who dotted the crowd with flags, fought a brilliant fight. A masterpiece -- at least until the final 90 seconds.

There's a reason why Martinez, 37, is rated among the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Martinez and trainer Pablo Sarmiento had a perfect game plan -- an avalanche of right jabs to the head, straight lefts to the body and move -- to deal with the bigger and younger Chavez, who had no answer for Martinez's speed and dominant right jab.

"My guy is a superstar now," DiBella said.

All along, Chavez's promoter, Top Rank, was concerned about matching him with a southpaw, and Martinez exploited it for most of the fight. But no matter how badly Chavez, 26, was losing, he made his fans proud. He did not quit. He kept on trucking, no matter how dire the situation was, and he was almost rewarded.

"You hit me with really hard punches," Martinez told his rival in the ring after the fight. "You're a great fighter."

With the win, Martinez, who earned $1.4 million plus pay-per-view upside, retained the lineal crown for the fifth time. He also lifted Chavez's alphabet title, which he once owned but was stripped of. That angered Martinez, who campaigned for this fight for almost 18 months until finally getting it.

It was worth the wait for him.

DiBella, nervous as always, wanted Martinez to stay away from Chavez, who made $3 million plus a share of the pay-per-view profits, in the late rounds. But that simply isn't Martinez's style.

"He wanted to knock him out, but this kid is strong," DiBella said. "He has balls of steel. He has his father's balls.

"Sergio did what he said he would do. He tagged him continually, but the kid wouldn't go. He kept trying to knock him out. He knows no other way but to entertain. I wanted him to stay away, because he could not lose if he did. He already beat him from pillar to post. I don't know how he survived, because Chavez landed a bomb."

Despite the one-sided nature of the fight, other than the last dramatic moments, there was rematch talk afterward. (HBO will replay the fight next Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT.)

The way it ended really does make you wonder what Chavez, who was defending his belt for the fourth time, could do the next time.

"A rematch of this fight would be an epic event," DiBella said. "That last round will give Chavez the kind of encouragement he needs for next time. That was great entertainment."

Said Martinez: "It was a tough fight for Julio to have his first loss in; we are two professionals. If Julio wants a rematch and the public wants a rematch, we can do a rematch."

We're in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world. Make the bet that there will be a rematch.

Anyone for Round 13?

Via: ESPN 
Via:Bleacherreport

NASA Captures Epic Eruption From Surface of Sun [PICS]

NASA Captures Epic CME Eruption

The sun experienced a huge coronal mass ejection (CME) on Aug. 31, 2012, and NASA captured several images.

Image courtesy of NASA

Epic CME, Full Sun View
Although the CME didn't impact Earth, it affected the magnetosphere, 
creating an aurora on Sept. 3.

Epic CME, Overaly
Here's an overlay of the CME imagery, using two different wavelengths of light.

Full Sun Overlay
The full sun pic as before, with the overaly.

CME in Ultraviolet
No, NASA wasn't playing with Photo Booth -- this is a quad shot at four different ultraviolet wavelengths.

Close-Up
Another shot of the CME.

Aurora Over Yukon
Here's what the Aurora looked like over Whitehorse in 
Canada's Yukon territory the night of Sept. 3.

From here on Earth, the Sun looks remarkably consistent, continuously bathing our planet in light and heat without much change from year to year, let alone day to day. In reality, it’s anything but calm, as this incredible NASA photo of a coronal mass ejection (CME) shows.

A CME is a huge burst of stellar material and magnetic fields from the surface of the sun — essentially what happens when the sun “burps.” They’re often associated with solar flares, but they can happen separately, too.

This particular CME occurred on Aug. 31, 2012 at 4:36 p.m Eastern Time. At its fastest, the burst shot out into space at more than 900 miles per second. Although this particular CME didn’t travel directly toward Earth (God help us if it did — a CME can be very destructive to things in orbit, like satellites), it did affect Earth’s magnetosphere, creating an aurora that was visible last night, Sept. 3.

NASA captured these spectacular images of the CME as well as the aurora, posting high-res versions on the Goddard Space Flight Center’s Flickr feed. Let us know what you think of the pics in the comments.

Images courtesy of NASA




Via: Mashable

Michael Strahan officially joins Kelly Ripa as co-host of ‘Live!’

Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan (Charles Sykes - CHARLES SYKES/INVISION/AP)

“Live With Kelly and [Fill In the Blank]!” continued its homage to the ’70s on Tuesday when host Kelly Ripa announced her new permanent co-host two weeks after Disney announced that she would reveal the lucky search winner Tuesday.

But because it’s not actually the ’70s but rather 2012 — the age of social media — we’ve known that Michael Strahan (the former New York Giants defensive end and current NFL commentator) had been picked as her new co-host since a few hours after Disney announced that Ripa would announce her new co-host in two weeks.

Still, Tuesday’s Time-Warp TV was very sweet.

Kelly, sensing the focus would shift to the newly named co-host as soon as she spoke his name, stalled as long as possible. She prattled on about her 59 non-winning guest hosts who have appeared on the show with her since Regis Philbin threw in the towel 10 months ago — after Disney declined to cough up the cash Rege needed to stick around the show he’d headlined in syndication for more than two decades.

“We finally have our new guy. That’s right, I said, ‘guy.’ This morning on ‘GMA,’ I wouldn’t even commit to whether it was as guy or a girl. I was so secretive!” Kelly said.

“You’re the best audience. I love you guys. I really appreciate all your input during our co-host search. . . . Stop sending me your résumés to my home address. . . . I’ve been very fortunate. . . . I’ve sat next to so many talented people. . . . I have enjoyed every single solitary person, except for, like, one. The staff is laughing because they know it’s true,” she continued in what may be her highest concentration of “I’s” per second yet.

“But now it’s time for a new era of our show to begin. . . . It gives me great pleasure to introduce the newest member of our ‘Live!’ family. We are honored to have him — Michael Strahan!”

Strahan was seen getting out of a large SUV, with its black-tinted windows, and running into the studio past a cloud of confetti and balloons. Kelly jumped into his arms, and he carried her across the goal line, while whispering things into her ear. She kissed him on the lips. The audience woo-hooed.

“We’re like that insane couple from ‘The Bachelor,’ ” Kelly said, dutifully plugging another Disney show.

“I missed you so much. I really missed you,” she told Strahan, who had guest co-hosted the show 20 times over the past two years.

“Live!,” she warned him, is “one of those places, once you walk in, you never walk out. But it’s worth it in every sense of the word. It has changed my life, when I came to the show I had a 3-year-old little boy. . . .”

And, Kelly was off again, talking about Kelly.

Via:WashingtonPost

New Song: Alicia Keys – ‘Girl On Fire’ (Blue Light)

Are you ready to hear the worst vocal performance of 2012? No, you need to we need to be very clear: you are about hear something that will make you question your ears, all thanks to Alicia Keys’ Blue Light version of her new song, ‘Girl on Fire’.


In what can only be described as unfortunate irony, Keys’ Blue Light edition of ‘Girl on Fire’ finds her struggling to find the right key on her own song for over four minutes. Hey, at least she’s not yelling like she did on the original and Nicki Minaj-assisted Inferno cuts of the tune.

Listen to the Blue Light special mix of ‘Girl on Fire’ below:

Now, people regularly slam us bloggers for not proof reading our articles so it’s only fair that I ask if Keys bothered to double check this Blue Light cut of ‘Girl on Fire’ before she released it. What exactly is the big deal? She sounds horrible!

Keys’ is utterly flat throughout the Blue Light version of ‘Girl on Fire’, her voice is painfully raspy and the track doesn’t even sound as though it was properly mastered. Simply, this record is garbage and I refuse to believe that Jeff Bhasker or Salaam Remi had anything to do with it. What do I have to click to return this song to sender?

Via:TheLavaLizard