The #Olympics are closing BUT the #POLITICAL GAMES are NEXT..

For the past almost three weeks, I and the world have been entrenched in the London Games of the XXX Olympiad! Unfortunately they are closing as all good things must come to an end but don't fret the fun, excitement and thrills are just beginning as we now step out of the Sports arena and into the political one!

First up in this competition for the White House are the Republicans, August 27-30! This time there convention will be from Tampa, Florida. Now say FLORIDA in a political way brings smiles to the GOP but anger to the Democrats. "HANGING CHADS" ring a bell.

Anyway, I always watch BOTH conventions. I can remember as a kid getting out of the backyard pool, setting up the portable black and white TV on the back porch,, my Dad throwing hot dogs and burgers on the grill as my whole family sat and watched the "SUMMER POLITICAL GAMES!"

Over the years coverage has changed. It used to be there was only Network TV which began with an NBC affiliate W2XBS in New York City of the 1940 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and soon the other two of the Big Three Networks soon followed. A national political convention has to accomplish certain things,adopting a party platform (a set of principles) and formally nominating candidates for president and vice president. The rest of the usual convention stagecraft — acceptance speeches, keynote addresses, and even the traditional roll call vote — are optional bits of political theater. Conventions have become tightly scripted made-for-TV spectacles.

Now the networks used to have hours of coverage each night, but now only provide at most an hour a night, usually covering the "BIG" speeches and nominating process handing the rest over to the 24/7 news channels of MSNBC, CNN and FOXNEWS.

Highlights of this years GOP convention speakers so far:

• South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, the first female governor of South Carolina and the youngest sitting governor in the United States;

• Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, the 44th governor of Arkansas and 2008 presidential candidate is a NY Times best-selling author, radio and television show host;

• Ohio Governor John Kasich, former House Budget Committee chairman;

• New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, the first female Hispanic governor in the U.S. and the first female governor of New Mexico;

• Arizona Senator John McCain, the party’s 2008 nominee, now serving his fifth term in the U.S. Senate;

• Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, America’s 66^th secretary of state and the first African-American female to hold the position; and

• Florida Governor Rick Scott, from the convention host state.
• Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, 43^rd governor of Florida and current chairman of the Foundation for Florida’s Future;

• Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin, the first woman to serve as both Oklahoma lieutenant governor and governor, and the first woman elected to Congress from Oklahoma since the 1920s;

• U.S. Senator Rand Paul, junior senator from Kentucky and founder of the U.S. Senate Tea Party Caucus; and

• Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, 2012 presidential primary candidate, and U.S. Senator (1995-2007) and U.S. Representative (1991-1995) from Pennsylvania.

The "Key Note Speaker" is still yet to be announced. Rumors say that gov Chris Christie of NJ just might be the one! We also don't yet know who Mitt Romneys running mate will be.

Next up will be the Democrats in Charlotte, NC September 3-6th. They get to go last because they have the incumbent Barack Obama.

The NFL was supposed to open there season on Thursday, September 6 with the Dallas Cowboys vs the New York Giants at the Giants New Jersey home in the meadowlands, but the league moved the game to Wednesday September 5 so to not impede the Presidents exception speech at the convention.

Highlights of this years DEMOCRATIC convention speakers so far:

• We know who they keynote speaker is already, Julian Castro, San Antonio mayor. The first Latino ever tapped for the high-profile primetime address, 37-year-old Castro is the youngest mayor of a top-50 American city. Serving a second term after a 2011 reelection with 82.9 percent of the vote, the Stanford and Harvard Law graduate’s biography lists a number of accolades that make it clear he’s an up-and-comer. The son of a single mother, Castro and his twin brother, Joaquin, who also has a stellar résumé and is running for Congress in Texas, strike the same chords that Barack Obama did when he was selected to keynote the Democratic convention in 2004—that America is a land of opportunity where merit and hard work are rewarded.

•  Former President Jimmy Carter will speak Sept. 4 in prime time via video, as he will not attend the convention in Charlotte. 

•  Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Warren is a Democratic candidate in one of the most closely watched political contests in the 2012 election. She is challenging Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown for the traditionally Democratic Massachusetts seat formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy. 

•  Former President Bill Clinton has been given a speaking role at the Democratic National Convention despite his occasionally contentious relationship with Obama in 2008, when the soon-to-be president was a U.S. senator battling former First Lady and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party's nomination.

•  First Lady Michelle Obama will speak on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention. She also spoke at the party's 2008 convention, appealing to Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton in the party primary to line up behind Obama in the general election.

•  Elizabeth Warren, a U.S. Senate candidate from Massachusetts who is especially popular with the party's left flank, delivers an address on Wednesday night, just before Clinton.

• Vice President Joe Biden will deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday at Charlotte's 74,000-seat National Football League stadium, before Obama takes the podium.

I don't know about you, but these "Political Games" are just as exciting as the Olympics! 

Apple Going Thermonuclear on GOOGLE - Drops BOMB on YouTube!

Apple’s vision of the future of the iPhone and iPad

It is clear that #Apple and #Google HATE each other.

In his autobiography, Steve Jobs wrote about Google Saying;

 

He is gone now, may he #RIP, but the war still rages on and those that are now in charge are taking up the battle to destroy #Google and everything they have!

It launched patent lawsuits against Google's Android hardware partners, HTC in 2010 and Samsung in 2011.

 

Now Apple is coming out this fall with IOS 6.0.

Round 1: 

MAPS

Apple revealed that Google would no longer provide the backend map technology for the iOS Maps app. The divorce affects all iOS developers who use iOS Map APIs: Apps approved for iOS 6 must use Apple's Map Kit API, which no longer utilizes Google's map services.  

Now I use this feature a LOT! Always getting lost no matter where I go, now its easy to go to the #Google Map App included with the #iPhone 4S  #IOS 5.1.1 type in your location and destination and it gives you directions, traffic even Swoop down and see the buildings exact street. BUT this will be GONE!

Now I'm sure #Google will quickly get a standalone App ready but it will no longer be included with your #iPhone

Apple selects TomTom as primary iOS 6 maps provider. TomTom has independently confirmed that it indeed "has signed a global agreement with Apple for maps and related information." 

Will it be just as god, better or will I resume getting lost again? We will see!

Round 2: 

YouTube! GONE! 

Yes that's right, with iOS 6 YouTube will no longer be included with there iOS operating systems. Apple said “Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store,” an Apple spokesperson said. They have NO desire to renew it!  The YouTube app will no longer ship with iOS, Google is working on a standalone version that people can download from the App Store.

Will it work the same way? Will we notice a difference. Is it better for those that have Apple products? THEY DON'T CARE!

Now it might be said that #Google hasn't really updated it's current app included in iOS for a very long time. This could be an opportunity for them to make major improvements and we the users will benefit for the better. 

Round 3:

Web search

Now in Safari on the iPad and iPhone, #Google search has been the slandered that is integrated in every iOS update that has been made. It is integrated in Siri as well. Would Apple give it the boot?

Now to be clear there’s Google, Yahoo, Bing. But each iOS device sold comes with Google set as the default. And very few people change that setting. Face it, when we want to search for something we say, "I'll #Google that!"

It’s believed that Google now pays Apple upwards of $1 billion a year as a result of being the main search engine for iOS. (Just two years ago, the number was believed to be closer to $100 million, which is insane growth and shows just how important this area is.)  

Now some say that Bing is better but NOT the general public and perception is stronger then reality. #Apple thinks Siri can replace most searching in #Google BUT they are a long way from that happening. 

Now reports say that Google’s Chrome browser is coming to iOS as an App. The analyst suggested that Apple may already be reviewing Google’s submitted code.Apple’s guidelines for iOS development mandate that third-party browsers use the WebKit framework. Chrome’s and Safari’s engines are nothing alike and I doubt Google would agree to re-write Chrome for iOS on UIWebView. Apple is also unlikely to relax its policies just to give preferential treatment to a rival browser.

But now there is NO way to set your default browser in iOS. Any link tapped in another app,takes one to Safari instead of a third-party browser, in this case Chrome and I can't see #Apple changing that for there Public Enemy #1.

Here, check out #Google’s Chrome advert starring Lady GaGa.

Would they just change to someone else as default, develop there own or simple NOT include them and make it a GOOGLE free smartphone or iPad?

As the line in the Superman movie said, "MAN, THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD!" 

 

Has the NBC #LondonOlympics been an #NBCFAIL?

The talk all over social media and the news has been that #NBC has not even medalled in the 30 Olympic games in London. The HASHTAG going around is #NBCFAIL!

NBC has been receiving a ton of flack for their coverage of the 2012 Olympics. Some of it has been justified, some blown out of proportion, Maybe. Lets take a look so far at all the particulars!

1. NBC’s decision not to air the opening ceremonies live/cutting the London terror attack memorial from segment: 
Every other country aired it LIVE. Also NBC blocked all live streams on the Internet, and only showing the opening hours later. It would have aired at 4pm edt, now I know that would have been 1pm pdt, but sometimes you have do whats right. Let's face it, though, NBC payed $1.1 billion fee they paid to license the Games, plus another $200 million for production costs. Brian Roberts, chief of NBC parent Comcast, said that NBC had sold just over $1 billion of ad time as of Monday July 30, 2012.
But NOT showing the solemn dance honoring the victims of London’s 7/7 attacks. As an additional slap in the face, NBC explained that the memorial was cut not because it reminded viewers of the horrors of global attacks, but because the whole issue wouldn’t be of interest to American viewers.#NBCFAIL

2. Today show producers fails to recognize Evander Holyfield:
The show did a "Person on the Street"  talking about the Queen’s performance at the opening ceremonies. Along comes the former Heavyweight Champ and NOBODY in studio or the interviewer recognized him! Doesn't look good for a network covering the PREMIER sporting event, the #OLYMPICS, not to know who he was! #NBCFAIL

3. Spoiler Social Media:

Now NBC has made deals with Social Media and Twitter calling it "Olympics Hub", a page on the site that will aggregate tweets from Olympic athletes, their families, fans and NBC personalities, as part of a partnership with the network to hype the Games. 
The Twitter feed will be promoted on TV with on-air ads directing viewers to the site. Likewise, messages that appear on Twitter will direct users to NBC's TV coverage.
Now both the IOC and NBC have complained that people are "SPOILING" results and in fact blocking events like the Cycling road race with so much #SM sharing. CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS! #NBCFAIL

4. Spoiler promo ruins the surprise of Missy Franklin’s gold medal win:

This was the MOST comical one of all. After #NBC cries that people are "SPOILING" there "TAPE DELAYED" prime-time broadcast I could not believe when I tuned in to watch  Missy Franklin, the 17 year old Team #USA Swimmer who I already knew, unless you stayed away from life all day, won the Gold medal in the 100-meter backstroke. We watched her compete and qualify in another swimming heat and the was told she had 10 minutes to get ready for her final.
NBC breaks for commercial but shows a "Today" teaser that included this photograph of the teen sensation standing on the medal stand with the gold draped around her neck. The short clip then cut to a video of Franklin hugging her parents outside London's Aquatics Centre, presumably after the race that she had won seven hours before NBC showed it on the East Coast.#NBCFAIL
WATCH -

5. Trying to ban critical journalist from Twitter:
This will come down to how you feel about privacy issues: NBC convinced Twitter, the same company they made a deal with, to ban The Independent‘s Guy Adams from the site  after he made disparaging remarks about the way they were showing the games. He also tweeted out the personal email of NBC’s Olympics President Gary Zenkel, which does actually violate Twitter’s privacy policy. The ban has since been lifted. #NBCFAIL

6. The NBC Apps:
NBC has two Apps they developed for the #LondonOlympics. One is a News / RESULTS, yes I said LIVE updated results, TV schedule, Video's Photos and Much more. When the games began, this App was NOT working. I first thought it was me, but on #SM everyone was having issues. It since, after several update, has been working GREAT and gives you everything it promised!

The second App is LIVE EXTRA! This is supoosed to give you access to NBC live stream of numerous events which you can watch "LIVE" on your smart phone or tablet. After, again, a VERY shackey start of NOT working it has lived up to it's billing as I have been able to watch Boxing, Soccer even the Finals of the Team womens Gymnastics final, although it is delayed by about a minute or so.

Again for a network worried about there "PRIME TIME TAPE DELAYED broadcast they have made it easy to watch events LIVE elsewhere.

Now so far NBC telecast of the London Olympics is toppling ratings records.Over the weekend, Olympic programming averaged 35.8 million total viewers in prime time, according to Nielsen — the best first weekend for any Olympics in history. Theopening ceremony alone drew more than 40 million viewers, even outpacing the start of the Atlanta Games in 1996. These are the kinds of numbers broadcast networks almost never see in an era of media fragmentation.

I think this whole #NBCFAIL - Social Media #SM controversy is helping the Peacock network. But, in my opinion, should have better embraced it, SHOW more LIVE events on regular TV and NOT hold ALL the big ones for prime-time Tape-Delayed.


But I'm watching on and off-line! HOW ABOUT YOU!

HOTTEST Models in the World Today.....

I participate in MANY different #Twitter Chats. On Wednesday nights at 10pm edt is #Toolschat with  moderator's  @Twylah & @mqtodd

What is #Toolschat? 

 It is called #ToolsChat and we will discuss how you can make the most of Twitter with various Twitter Tools and also other tools for blogs etc.
We will review a different set of tools each week.

This week was a new web site /  start-up called list.ly

Click on image for to visit→

What is List.ly? It  is a way to create and share lists, as well as integrate collaborative lists into your own blog posts, or as I'm doing creating a blog post about a list I created!  

List.ly was once known as twtpickin, and the developer Shyam Subramanyan & Nick Kellet decided to take the app to a whole new level…with the understanding that lists make up a huge amount of the blogging content on the web today.

What List.ly does is allow content creators to create lists and then crowdsource them, giving them scalability and allowing them to have lives beyond their original blog post. List.ly allows lists to evolve, just as the service has.

By signing up, List.ly allows you to create lists that can be shared and built upon by others. Users can embed their lists into their WordPress blogs, as well as share them via social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. You log in using either your Twitter, as I did or your Facebook account, making the signup process simple which it was.

Now I'm still exploring and learning but in a matter of an hour I joined, decided the subject of my first list, researched it and added to it, wrote a blog about it, embedded the list and it was ALL VERY simple!

I think I like this new #SM TOOL! #toolschat

Join and ADD to my List!

Hottest Models in the World

View more lists from Uncle Bill

How do you define Computer?

This blog post was done completely on my #iphone! Not on a PC or Mac or #ipad but totally on my #iphone 4S I've had since December 2011. In fact I just dictated this entire sentence using the microphone feature on the iPhone! So what! No big deal! Who cares? I used to be constantly sitting in front of my Dell PC surfing the web or getting e-mails, using #Pinterest or #Google+ or #Facebook or whatever! Now I can just lay around and use the #iphone for all that and more! It's true what the late Steve Jobs said, "People will have #iphones and #ipads instead of computers!" While nothing, in my opinion, will or can ever replace the traditional computer, there getting pretty darn close! So how about it! Will the tradition computer be a thing of the past? Or will you always have a PC/Mac in every household?