Hasta La Gadget!

CAIRO, Nov 30 (Reuters) – Syria’s new opposition coalition edged closer on Friday toward choosing a prime minister to lead a transitional government after three days of talks in Cairo that furthered the dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Former Prime Minister Riad Hijab, a longtime apparatchik in President Bashar al-Assad’s Baath Party before he defected in August, is the strongest candidate for the job, delegates said.

Hijab, who is backed by Jordan and Gulf states, is likely to be chosen before or during a gathering in mid-December of the Friends of Syria, according to coalition insiders.

The grouping of dozens of nations had pledged mostly non-military backing for the revolt but is worried by the influence of Islamists in the opposition.

A popular uprising erupted in March 2011 against Assad’s autocratic rule in which 40,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to flee the country

Coalition member Louay Safi said the prime minister would be the point man for the coalition with the international community and act as the head of an alternate Cabinet ready to fill the political and security void if Assad falls from power.

Members of the new government cannot be members of the coalition, which numbers 60.

“I think Hijab has the best chance. He has taken big risks to defect and has since come across as a balanced and composed choice,” said coalition member Munther Bakhos, a veteran opposition figure forced to flee Syria during the 1970s, as bloody repression by Assad’s father, late President Hafez al-Assad, intensified, eventually killing many thousands.

Under internal coalition rules reached late into the night, the prime minister will be elected by a simple majority in the coalition, in which the Brotherhood and its allies have more than 50 percent of the seats.

Candidates must have contributed to the 20-month revolt against Assad and not be tainted by corruption, according to internal rules reached at 2 a.m. (midnight GMT).

NEW EXECUTIVE BODY

The coalition earlier on Friday created an executive body, less than a month after the group came into being with Western and Arab support.

The 11-member “political assembly” will be headed by moderate preacher Moaz al-Khatib, the current president of the coalition.

They will include his two vice presidents and the coalition’s secretary general, Qatari-backed businessman Mustafa Sabbagh, who has emerged as one of the most powerful figures in the new structure.

But the delegates failed to agree on the names of the 11 members after a lengthy election procedure and postponed deciding on the issue, delegates said.

Hardball politics have overshadowed the three-day proceedings in Cairo, with the Brotherhood becoming an overwhelmingly powerful kingmaker.

Since the coalition was set up in Qatar earlier this month, the Brotherhood has swiftly assembled a de facto majority bloc, according to insiders keeping track of changes in the membership of the coalition.

The revolt against four decades of rule by Assad and his late father revived the Brotherhood’s fortunes after decades of repression that killed many thousands of its members, and opened more sources of financing for the organisation from exiled conservative Syrians.

France, Britain, Turkey and Gulf Arab states have already recognised the coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. The United States has been more cautious.

Hijab is a Sunni Muslim from the desert oil-producing province of Deir al-Zor in the east of Syria, on the border with Iraq’s Sunni heartland.

Alliances in Deir al-Zor between Sunni Muslim tribes and the ruling elite from Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that has dominated power in Syria since the 1960s, collapsed after Assad’s forces shot scores of demonstrators in the province at the beginning of the revolt.

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I’ve seen some unusual gadgets over the years, but the iKazoo might be one of the most offbeat, yet intriguing devices I’ve seen in a while.

Designed by ogaco, the iKazoo is first and foremost a wireless controller which can be used for playing music with your iOS or Android device. It’s got a lip sensor, a full chromatic keyboard and even a flute built into it. But the device aspires to be much more than a virtual wind instrument, as it can not only detect touch and breath, but movement. This opens the controller up to other sorts of interactions, such as using it as a paintbrush, on-screen navigation or for controlling games.

When used for gaming, it can be used as a sort of joystick, or also as a unique control method for games that involve balancing objects, or spinning a wheel. Its makers envision a plethora of other uses ranging from a motion control for golf and tennis games to a personal fitness tracker to a voice recorder and even as a karaoke machine.

Inside the stick-like iKazoo is a sophisticated set of circuits including an Ardiuno compatible microcontroller, Bluetooth wireless networking, optical, shock and motion sensors, as well as a microphone, multitouch sensor, RGB LEDs and even a headphone jack. It sounds sort of like a Wii Remote on steroids.

While the promotional video for the iKazoo is a bit silly at times (gotta love the part with the guy looking through the microscope,) I can really see potential here. A wireless controller with so much functionality along with an Open Source development platform could be a dream for hackers and tinkerers, much like the Wii-mote and Kinect have been. At this point it appears that the iKazoo is in the prototype stages, but the company is already registering interest for preorders for the strange little gadget.

Sick of propping your Nexus 7 up with books, backpacks and terrifying spider-stands? ASUS has something for you — an official charging cradle. This wedge shaped slab dock was leaked in an accessory presentation back in July, flaunting a Micro USB connector and 3.5mm audio jack — now it’s back, flaunting a ¥3,580 ($42) sticker price on the Japanese ASUS shop. There’s no word yet on international availability or official US prices, but the product page pegs the cradle for an early December ship date.

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Source: ASUS

Microsoft has updated the Windows Phone Store and Dev Center, which includes an expansion of the Store’s market and the addition of ratings requirements for games in Russia and Taiwan. This represents the latest in a string of updates that the company has regularly pushed out to both services, and, according to Microsoft, are designed to provide enhancements, among other things.

First up is the Windows Phone Store, which has been expanded to 42 new markets. New locations include the UAE, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Cameroon, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Kenya, Pakistan, Niger, Congo, Armenia, Uganda, and many more. This brings the total number of markets with Windows Phone Store to 113.

In addition, new rating requirements have been implemented for games available in Russia and Taiwan. Games published in Russia are required to have a PEGI (Pan European Game Information) rating, as well as a rating certificate. Games published in Taiwan must have a CSSR (Computer Software Rating Regulation) rating. This is done via a self-rating system the game’s developer has to complete and submit via the Dev Center.

The new rating requirements are for new games and updated games. For Taiwan, the requirement goes into effect on January 1. In addition to those two changes, there’s now the added privacy policy URL, making it easier for users to access this information. Finally, the email addresses for beta testers can now be validated during the submission process.

[via Windows]

Windows Phone Store and Dev Center expanded, updated is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Check out this newly launched desktop PC from Mouse Computer, the MDV-AQX9100SH4S-WS. The system sports a 3.20GHz Intel Core i7-3930K processor, an Intel X79 Express Chipset, a NVIDIA Quadro 4000 2GB graphics card, a 32GB DDR3 RAM, a 240GB SSD (Intel 520), an 800GB SSD (Intel 910), a DVD Super Multi Drive, a 700W 80PLUS GOLD power supply and runs on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (SP1) OS. The MDV-AQX9100SH4S-WS sells for 699,300 Yen (about $8,514). [Product Page]