Hasta La Gadget!

While smartphones are aplenty, luxury smartphones on the other hand are not so common. Usually such devices tend to sport relatively mediocre hardware specs but instead focus more on its build materials such as diamonds, gold, rubies, high quality leather options, and more. Well if you are looking for such a device, it looks like Vertu could have what you want.

It seems that the company has a new luxury smartphone in the works called the Vertu Aster. The device was ousted thanks to a listing on China’s TENAA and the FCC which kind of gave away its design and its specs in the process. No word on when Vertu plans on making the Aster official or how much it will cost, but chances are it won’t come cheap.

That being said, if you’re wondering what kind of specs we are looking at, surprisingly the Vertu Aster has some pretty decent specs. The Vertu Aster will come with a 4.7-inch display with a resolution of 1920×1080 which is admittedly pretty decent. It will be accompanied by 2GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. There will also be a 2.3GHz quad-core processor under its hood.

The phone will also support LTE and NFC connectivity and will come with a 13MP rear-facing camera, a 2MP front-facing camera, and will run on Android 4.4 KitKat with Vertu’s own customized UI on top. We can’t be sure what kind of materials Vertu will be using here, but based on the screenshot it looks like leather is a possibility. In any case we’ll keep our eyes peeled, so check back with us later for the details.

Vertu Aster Spotted At TENAA And The FCC

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MIAMI (AP) — A South Florida dermatologist credited with helping develop the first baldness remedy recognized by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has died. He was 80.

Dr. Guinter Kahn’s daughter Michelle said her father died Sept. 17 at a Miami hospice. His health had been declining since a stroke eight years ago. Kahn’s name was added to the patent for minoxidil in 1986 after a 15-year legal struggle with Upjohn Co. Minoxidil is the active ingredient in Rogaine.

Upjohn originally synthesized minoxidil to treat high blood pressure in the early 1960s. When Dr. Charles Chidsey — one of the company’s consultants working at the University of Colorado’s medical school — noticed the drug stimulated hair growth, Chidsey went to Kahn and his medical assistant, Dr. Paul Grant. Kahn was running the school’s dermatology department at the time.

The Miami Herald (http://goo.gl/KZJqqt) reports that Kahn and Grant eventually developed a topical solution for minoxidil in 1971. The pair earned royalties, said to be 2 to 5 percent, from Upjohn’s $200 million of wholesale annual revenues from Rogaine in the late 1980s.

While Kahn benefited financially from his discovery, he couldn’t actually use it to treat his own baldness.

“He was allergic to it,” his daughter told The Herald. “But he loved tinkering around, doing research.”

Kahn was born May 11, 1934, to a German-Jewish family in Trier, Germany. He fled the Nazis with his family in 1938 and ended up in Omaha, Nebraska.

Kahn graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1958 and later completed a medical residency at the University of Miami School of Medicine. He maintained a private practice in North Miami Beach for more than 30 years.

His funeral was held in Nebraska last week, but his South Florida friends will be able to attend a memorial this weekend in Miami.

Besides his daughter Michelle, Kahn is survived by his longtime partner Judy Felsenstein, his son Bruce, his brother Marcel and grandchildren Nathan and Emma.

___

Information from: The Miami Herald, http://www.herald.com

A South Carolina state trooper was fired last week and arrested on Wednesday after a dashcam video showed him shooting an unarmed man during a routine traffic stop.

Former officer Sean Groubert, 31, is seen in the newly released video pulling over Levar Edward Jones. The clip, which was recorded on Groubert’s dashcam on Sept. 4, shows Jones getting out of his vehicle at a gas station in Columbia.

Groubert asks Jones for his driver’s license. As Jones reaches into his vehicle to retrieve it, Groubert shouts, “Get out of the car!”

When Jones complies and starts to back away from the vehicle, Groubert opens fire. Three shots can be heard; Jones was hit at least once, in the hip.

“I was just getting my license,” Jones says. He also apologizes repeatedly, and asks, “Sir, why was I shot? All I did was reach for my license. I’m coming from work.”

“Well, you dove head-first back into your car,” Groubert says. “Then you jumped back out, I’m telling you to get out of your car.”

Groubert was charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, a felony which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, according to a news release from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

The complaint states that Groubert “did without justification unlawfully shoot Levar Jones which produced great bodily injury or was likely to cause great bodily injury. Audio and visual recordings, as well as written statements, obtained are further evidence to indicate the shooting incident was without justification.”

South Carolina Department of Public Safety Director Leroy Smith called the case disturbing.

“After my review of the facts surrounding this matter, I have determined that Mr. Groubert’s actions rose to such an extent that his employment with us must be terminated,” Smith said in a statement last week. “While Mr. Groubert was within the law to stop Mr. Jones for a safety belt violation, the force administered in this case was unwarranted, inconsistent with how our troopers are trained, and clearly in violation of Department policies.”

Groubert pleaded not guilty and is free after posting a $75,000 bond, according to WIS-TV. He’s expected to appear in court on Oct. 24.

Jones was hospitalized for the hip injury, but has since been released. He told WIS that he hopes the incident will lead to change throughout the country.

(h/t TalkingPointsMemo)

After the recent spate of celeb nude leaks, and the years-long Snowden saga, privacy is becoming an ever-hotter topic in the tech realm. That’s where WEDG, a personal cloud that aims to keep your data safe — and out of the reach of the government — comes in.

Read more…

Is getting married right for you? What should you consider before walking down the aisle? Ask yourself these questions:

1. Why are you getting married?
Be honest and evaluate the reasons behind your engagement. Write a list of pros and cons about your partner and your relationship. If you have to talk yourself into marriage — don’t. If you have to talk your fiancé into marriage — no way! Make sure you’re not getting married to escape or avoid something. Have you just always wanted to get married? That’s not a good enough reason. If you get nauseous shopping for a wedding dress or feel sick every time you have to meet the caterer, listen to your body.

2. Do you know and trust your partner’s personal history?
The best predictor of future behavior is relevant past behavior. Learn from it. How has your partner behaved in past relationships? How has he/she behaved with you? What has your partner learned about marriage from his/her parents? Look closely at your partner’s parents because children learn what they live.

3. Have you planned a marriage — or just a wedding?
Cake, flowers and fine china are all exciting, but there’s more at stake than a one-day party. Your wedding is a day; a marriage is a lifetime. You don’t just want to be married; you want to be happily married. Think about the next 50 years. Put at least the same amount of time and effort that you are using to plan your wedding into planning your marriage. Develop an emotional prenuptial agreement with your partner, outlining how you’ll handle children, discipline, sex, money, division of labor, religion, careers, retirement, in-laws, geography, etc. If you don’t plan for and discuss these topics, you won’t be able to successfully merge two lives together.

4. Are you investing more than you can afford to lose?
Look at the cost of your relationship. If you have to give up your friends, career, or family, for example, the cost is too high. If it all falls apart, are you going to be emotionally bankrupt? It is better to be healthy alone, than sick with someone else.

5. Have you identified and communicated your needs and expectations?
You can’t determine if somebody is good for you if you don’t first know your own needs. Express your needs and expectations now — not when you’re already in the marriage. What are your absolute deal breakers? Do you know your partner’s? The formula for success in relationship is a function of the extent to which it is built on a solid underlying friendship and meets the needs of the two people involved. So make sure each of you has articulated your needs and are on board to meet them — starting now.

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