By Jena Pincott
When life comes at you fast and furious, the last thing you want to do is make things even harder on yourself. Need some stress relief? Start by avoiding these eight traps:
Mistake #1: Skipping Your Morning Joe
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More on OWN Healthy Mind & Body
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal division, who has shouldered much of the blame for bringing few cases related to the financial crisis, but who also led the unit to record settlements, will step down on March 1.
“As I wrote to the President, and want to tell you, serving as the head of this remarkable Division has been the greatest privilege of my professional life,” Lanny Breuer said in a memo to criminal division employees dated Tuesday.
Breuer, 54, who previously worked as a defense lawyer and in the Clinton White House, has led the division since 2009.
He was criticized for the department’s failure to bring major prosecutions against companies and individuals who played a role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
Under Breuer, the department decided in August not to bring criminal charges against Goldman Sachs after Congress had spent more than a year looking at the investment band and had asked for a criminal inquiry.
But Breuer also steered the division to enter into several record-breaking settlements involving financial and environmental crimes.
For example, BP Plc agreed in November to pay $4 billion in criminal fines and penalties, the largest in history, on charges related to the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
And London-based bank HSBC Holdings plc also agreed in December to pay a total of $1.9 billion, including the forfeiture of $1.25 billion, the largest to date, to resolve charges that it failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and let itself be used by major Mexican drug cartels.
The division has also played a role in investigating banks that allegedly manipulated benchmark interest rates, including the London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor.
In December, a Japanese unit of UBS pleaded guilty and the Swiss bank agreed to pay a total of $1.5 billion in fines to regulators in the United States, the UK and Switzerland to resolve related charges.
Barclays previously entered into a related, non-prosecution agreement and agreed to pay around $450 million in penalties.
Forty-four percent of nonprofit groups plan to hire more workers in the coming year, another sign charities are starting to feel confident about the economy, according to a new survey.
Health nonprofits, followed by environment and animal-welfare groups, were most likely to report plans to hire.
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SOUTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) — The vandals that damaged a Massachusetts cemetery this week have pleaded “moo.”
Police say a small herd of cows knocked over 40 American flags and veterans’ bronze grave markers, then snacked on a few flower arrangements, at the Center Cemetery in Southampton on Monday.
Motorists called to report that the cows were loose. Police contacted the owner, Henry Wykowski, who caught and removed the cows from the cemetery.
BlackBerry’s accessories are almost as interesting as its first BB10 shipping hardware, and in addition to an external battery charger, they’ve also got a Bluetooth Mini Stereo Speaker/speakerphone that’s extremely portable, delivers decent sound and won’t cost you an arm and a leg at $79.99. Plus, the unique design means it clips onto your sun visor in the car for hands-free communication.
The sound quality from the speaker is decent, much better than a lot of more expensive devices (though I’d still prefer a Jambox for audio fidelity), and it can actually go quite loud. Not room-filling or anything, but plenty loud for private listening. But the main advantages are the fact that it acts as a very good Bluetooth speakerphone, charges via micro USB (and can be charged with your external Z10 charger), can go weeks without a charge and has a 3.5mm headset jack, which essentially makes it a Bluetooth receiver for use with a stereo or headphones.
The hardware accessory market is a place where it’s hard to compete with platforms like iOS and Android, and that’s likely why BlackBerry is taking an early interest in doing things itself. And they’re off to a good start in that regard, if my experience with this speaker is any indication.
BlackBerry didn’t only unveil the Z10 today, it also introduced a couple of accessories, including the Battery Charger Bundle for the LS1, the Z10′s 1800 mAh battery. The external charger is extremely slim and portable, and houses a covered slot for a spare battery (which is included in the bundle), as well an integrated micro USB cable that slides nicely into the case when not in use, all of which will run you $49.99.
Honestly, the charger is one of may favorite things about the new BlackBerry announcements today. It daisy-chains with the Z10 itself so that you can charge both at once, with power directing to the phone first and backup battery second, and it has a light that blinks yellow while depleted and charging, green while more full and charging, and solid green when completely topped off. It can also be used as an external charger for any micro USB device, so if you’ve got an Android tablet as well as the Z10, you’re set.
It also effectively doubles the battery life of the Z10 itself, which is good considering that I found that wasn’t one of the Z10′s strongest suits in my comprehensive review of the new BlackBerry smartphone. It’s available [DATE] for $49.99, and if you’re getting a Z10, it’s basically a necessity.
If you like what you’ve seen so far from RIM BlackBerry’s big launch event today, then you might want to know when you can get it? Those in the US might have hoped the rumors weren’t true, but indeed, you will have to wait until March before you can get your hands on BlackBerry 10. Though when it does land, customers of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint (only Q10 confirmed) and T-Mobile (Z10 confirmed) will all be able to get onboard. BlackBerry’s giving its home turf a little bit of a head start with a February 5th release date and Bell, Rogers, Koodo, Telus and Virgin Mobile confirmed as carrying. But — as had already been hinted at — it’s the UK that gets the goods first, with the Z10 and Q10 both available starting tomorrow on all the major carriers. US pricing will depend on each operator, but expect to pay around $200.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, RIM
Source: T-Mobile
We’re right in the thick of RIM’s big BlackBerry 10 announcement in New York, and it’s been nothing if not eventful so far. CEO Thorsten Heins just recently unveiled the new BlackBerry Z10 (full review here) a little while ago, and now the topic of conversation has turned to something else: availability. RIM’s first BlackBerry 10-powered device will first appear in the UK and Canada, with sales beginning tomorrow across the pond and Feb. 5 in the Great White North for $149.99 on a 3-year contract.
It’ll arrive in the U.S. in March, with pre-orders starting at the four major carriers, including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile today, according to BlackBerry’s Alec Saunders. Pricing in the U.S. has yet to be announced for all carriers, but Verizon has said it will provide the Z10 at $199 on a two-year term for new agreements. And while on stage BlackBerry said that the Z10 will come to the U.K. tomorrow, on through all major UK channels, including EE, Phones4u, CPW, Vodafone, O2, Three UK, and BT.
BlackBerry 10 first started undergoing carrier testing back in October, and by the end of the month Heins announced that more than 50 carriers had begun testing the veteran smartphone maker’s new mobile OS. Heins said that the delay in U.S. launch of the Z10 was due to American carriers taking longer to test new devices than those in other countries. That’s not exactly wonderful for BlackBerry, since the devices will go to market in the U.S. well after the company’s splashy Super Bowl marketing campaign launches.
The Z10 has already made some progress getting its regulatory approval, which could suggest we’ll see it on AT&T’s network first, but that will depend on more factors than just government sign-off.
The FCC has approved a Z10 for AT&T and T-Mobile, but not Verizon, Sprint. No Q10 approved yet. That might tell you who gets what first.
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Rich Brome (@rbrome) January 30, 2013
As for the keyboard-toting Q10, it’ll be available in an “April timeframe,” Heins said at the event. That’s a global expected launch date, and there are no details yet on where it will launch first.
Additional reporting by Darrell Etherington
BlackBerry has officially announced its new platform today, BlackBerry 10, as well as a couple of new devices running the new OS. The BlackBerry Z10 and the Q10 will both be available on Verizon’s network, but so far, only the BlackBerry Z10, specifically, has availability and pricing details. The Z10 will be priced at $199 after signing a new two-year contract and will launch in mid-March.
The Z10 will come in both black and white variants with the white model being exclusive to Verizon, at least here in the US. The device is launching on all four major carriers in the States, so if you’re wanting to get your hands on a white version, Verizon is your only option if you live within the US borders.
The Z10 has a dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage, with room for a microSD card. The device also has a 4.2-inch display with a pixel density of 356ppi. That’s all we really know so far of the Z10′s hardware specs, but we should be finding out more about it later today.
While Verizon has announced that they’ll be offering the Q10, which is BlackBerry’s other new device that comes with a phyiscal QWERTY keyboard, the carrier has not announced availability nor a price tag for the new device. We’re guessing it’ll arrive in March just like the Z10, but we’ll have to wait and hear about pricing details. Stay tuned!
BlackBerry Z10 for Verizon coming in March for $199 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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