JERUSALEM: A flotilla packed with hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists, food and other humanitarian supplies was headed for a high-seas standoff today as it attempts to break Israel’s longstanding blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel has vowed to intercept the boats, tow them to the Israeli port of Ashdod and deport or arrest those aboard. The flotilla, which gathered Saturday in international waters off Cyprus, is expected to encounter Israeli naval boats as early as today. ”We are determined to…

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The U.S. economy has clearly made good progress out of the dark days of the recession, but we also see lingering problems. Although consumers have contributed significantly to economic recovery…

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For years now, hotel chains have been toying with alternative ways to letting patrons check-in, access their room and run up their bill with all-too-convenient in-room services. Marriott began testing smartphone check-ins way back in 2006, and select boutique locations (like The Plaza Hotel in New York and Boston’s Nine Zero) have relied on RFID, iris scanners, biometric identifiers and all sorts of whiz-bang entry methods in order to make getting past a lock that much easier (or harder, depending on perspective). This month, InterContinental Hotels Group announced that they would soon be trialing OpenWays at Chicago’s Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center, enabling iPhone owners to fire up an app and watch their room door open in a magical sort of way. Other smartphone platforms will also be supported, and as we’ve seen with other implementations, users of the technology will also be able to turn to their phone to order additional services, extend their stay or fess up to that window they broke. There’s no word on when this stuff will depart the testing phase and go mainstream, but we’re guessing it’ll be sooner rather than later. Video after the break, if you’re interested.

Continue reading OpenWays makes your smartphone a hotel room key, provides a different kind of ‘unlock’

OpenWays makes your smartphone a hotel room key, provides a different kind of ‘unlock’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 May 2010 01:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Typical, right? As the 3D craze flows from the cinema to the television and onto the PC, it was just a matter of time before one of MSI’s Wind Top all-in-ones shipped with support for the third dimension. By most accounts, the new Wind Top AE2420 3D looks like a mildly larger version of the AE2220 we peeked late last year, touting a 24-inch 1080p multitouch panel, support for shutter glasses (a single pair is included), Core i5 or i7 CPU options and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD5730 pushing the pixels. There’s also a pair of 5-watt speakers built-in, not to mention an Ethernet jack, VGA output and a handful of USB 2.0 sockets. Mum’s the word on pricing, but MSI is expected to have this bad boy on display as Computex kicks off early next week. Yeah, you know we’ll be there pretending to be embarrassed while donning the spectacles.

Continue reading MSI follows fate’s whispers, intros 24-inch Wind Top AE2420 3D

MSI follows fate’s whispers, intros 24-inch Wind Top AE2420 3D originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 May 2010 22:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. Before I take your questions, I want to update the American people on the status of the BP oil spill — a catastrophe that is causing tremendous hardship in the Gulf Coast, damaging a precious ecosystem, and one that led to the death of 11 workers who lost their lives in the initial explosion. Yesterday, the federal government gave BP approval to move forward with a procedure known as a “top kill” to try to stop the leak. This involves plugging the well with densely packed mud to prevent any more oil from escaping. And given the complexity of this procedure and the depth of the leak, this procedure offers no guarantee of success. But we’re exploring…

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BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters)

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After a string of highly localized suicides at Foxconn’s manufacturing campus captured the world’s attention — again — the company has decided to increase worker wages by about 20 percent. Foxconn says that the pay raise had been planned for some time but did not say when it would be implemented. Mind you, a 20% bump in the third quarter is not unusual as Foxconn ramps up production for the holidays. In fact, Foxconn has given raises by as much as 50% in the past according to Vincent Chen, analyst at Yuanta Securities in Taipei. At the moment, Foxconn entry-level line workers are paid 900 yuan (about $131.80) per month — remuneration that exceeds the local minimum wage in the area. And that’s before bonuses and that oh-so tempting overtime pay are factored in. It’s also worth noting that Foxconn is said by a factory worker surnamed Wang, to pay 100,000 yuan (about 10 times a worker’s annual base salary) to families of suicide victims — a sum he says has tempted some to their death.

Foxconn raising wages by about 20 percent as previously planned originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 03:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s back in its familiar saddle today with the unveiling of a pair of new CPUs, marking the start of a new K-series that will cater to the overclocker inside all of us. The Core i7-875K is a 2.93GHz quad-core unit, which can scale heights of 3.6GHz via Turbo Boost, or even higher if you have the patience, tenacity and appropriate cooling to make it happen. Review action for this chip shows it to be Intel’s premier offering short of the enthusiastically overpriced and overpowered Core i7-980X. Even more affordable will be the Clarkdale-based Core i5-655K, which trots along at 3.2GHz (with a 3.46GHz gallop option), but response to it was a little more muted. It’s a dual-core CPU, after all, and if you don’t plan on exploiting that unlocked multiplier to achieve some madness above 4GHz, you might be better off looking elsewhere. In amidst all the mad benchmarking, we’ve also found a review of a Falcon Northwest i7-875K rig as well, so give it all a read if you’re mulling over a desktop upgrade.

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Intel Core i7-875K and Core i5-655K unlock multipliers, better performance originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 03:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Baghdad, May 26: The Iraqi government is considering dissolving state-owned Iraqi Airways, after a row with neighbouring Kuwait over war reparations. Baghdad and Kuwait have been locked in a long-running dispute over billions of dollars in reparations from Iraq, including some $1.2 billion related to aircraft and parts seized during former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s…

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How do you know that the rules restricting electronics on planes are impractical? When you see a crewmember openly texting at 36,000 feet. That’s what Peter Zapalo says he saw on a recent Southwest Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Denver. On his way to the lavatory, Zapalo, an exercise physiologist from Philadelphia, spotted a crewmember who appeared to be messaging on his BlackBerry. “I was maybe two feet from him and you could see his text, a response, and his reply,” Zapalo said. “I’m sure passengers are sneaking around and doing this all the time, but c’mon-the flight attendant?” Zapalo wrote to Southwest expressing his concern and received a form letter thanking him for his message,…

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