Why 'The X Factor' Should Try Playing Hard-To-Get

The FOX show's very long and public search for judges is making it look desperate.
By John Mitchell

<P>On Wednesday (May 2) we learned that <a href="/news/articles/1684289/demi-lovato-x-factor-judge-miley-cyrus.jhtml">Demi Lovato, Avril Lavigne and Miley Cyrus</a> are all being courted as possible replacements for Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger on "The X Factor" judging panel.</P><P>But don't get your knickers in a twist &#8212; "The X Factor" originated in Britain, after all &#8212; <a href="/news/articles/1680782/britney-spears-x-factor-judge-offer.jhtml">Britney Spears is reportedly</a> still in the game too, though reports that she "insisted on various perks that have bogged down negotiations" are floating around.</P><P>So to be clear, Britney might still be in, Demi is close to a deal and Miley and Avril are on the table. A few months ago, we could have replaced the Demi with Janet Jackson and Miley with Mariah Carey. And prior to her tragic passing in February, Whitney Houston was also being considered for the panel, according to remaining judges <a href="/news/articles/1679472/american-idol-voice-x-factor-simon-cowell.jhtml"> L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell</a>.</P><P>Never before has the casting process for a reality television show judge been so exhaustingly long and public. Sure, before Jennifer Lopez signed on to "American Idol" there were rumors that she was being pursued, but no public statements were made until she had signed on the dotted line. And while the constant stream of potential candidates being leaked to the press or talked about openly by Reid or Cowell may itself be a negotiation technique &#8212; most likely to try to ambush Spears into signing on for fear of being replaced &#8212; is also doing something <i>very</i> specific to the troubled signing competition.</P><P>It is making "The X Factor" look desperate. <i>Really</i> desperate.</P><P>With the FOX upfronts just two weeks away and filming on the production scheduled to begin early this summer, it's not exactly encouraging that the show cannot secure above-the-title talent. An upfront is a showcase hosted at the start of important advertising sales periods by network executives, and they are attended by the press and, more importantly, major advertisers.</P><P>"The X Factor" is a costly show for FOX, and the deal on the table for Spears, <a href="/news/articles/1682881/britney-spears-x-factor-deal.jhtml">reported to be $15 million per season</a>, certainly isn't bringing the budget down. Watching the never-ending parade of potential judges unfurl and then walk away &#8212; and keep in mind that the show is also casting about for two hosts to replace Steve Jones &#8212; cannot be serving the show well with eagle-eyed advertisers watching closely to see where their money will be best spent.</P><P>Conducting contract negations so publicly is always a risky endeavor, but in this specific case, "The X Factor" has backed itself into a corner. The show looked silly when talks with music legends Jackson and Carey fell through after <a href="http://newsroom.mtv.com/2012/02/17/janet-jackson-x-factor-rumors-perfect-fit-for-show/">so much public discussion</a>, and in making the details of Spears' deal public and then failing to (at this point) lock her in, execs at "The X Factor" look borderline inept.</P><P>There's been some discussion that by tossing Miley, Avril and Demi's names into the ring, the show is trying to make Spears seem replaceable and get her to back down on her alleged "various perks."</P><P>It's a dirty way to conduct business and ultimately doesn't speak well of what is going on behind the scenes in the show's search for its new panelists. If that is indeed the case, it's like the show is grasping at straws. And that's not the best look when you are walking into the FOX upfronts seeking advertisers on the heels of an underperforming first season.</p>

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EchoStar outs its HDT-610R Ultra Slim Box, says it's 'world's slimmest' DVR

EchoStar has come a long way since unveiling that HDS-600RS early last year, and today the European company's taking the wraps off of its newest DVR, the Ultra Slim Box HDT-610R. Keeping true to its moniker, the 610R measures in at a slim 14mm thin, while weighing in at just under two pounds. Physical features aside, EchoStar's managed to stuff a 500GB hard drive inside the DVR's scrawny body, as well as a couple of USB 2.0 incisions and single Ethernet and HDMI ports. On the software end, the device is equipped with a Freeview+ HD feature that offers subscription-free access to over 50 "high quality" and four high-def channels -- though, you will have to pay a one-time fee for the service. The HDT-610R will be available for pre-order starting May 4th, with Amazon, John Lewis and Maplin being the first online vendors to have it for up for grabs. No word on pricing yet, but in the meantime all you Euro folks can gander at the PR below to soak up the rest of the deets.

Continue reading EchoStar outs its HDT-610R Ultra Slim Box, says it's 'world's slimmest' DVR

EchoStar outs its HDT-610R Ultra Slim Box, says it's 'world's slimmest' DVR originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 19:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha hands-on

Behold the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha. Research in Motion is now following in the footsteps of tech giants like Nokia, Intel and Qualcomm by pushing out a device solely dedicated to serve the needs of its developers. Considering the level of importance RIM is placing on the launch of its latest OS, the QNX-based BlackBerry 10, this is a critical move for the Canadian company as it works to recruit interested parties from other platforms while strengthening its existing relationships. Emulators and development kits are nice, of course, but they can't take the place of an actual working device -- and the Dev Alpha will be the primary vehicle to drive BB 10 developers until the final production smartphones begin shipping sometime this fall.

Our time with the Dev Alpha was brief, and we weren't able to glean much out of the experience. Why? When we were given the opportunity to play with it, the device was more of a miniature PlayBook than a BB10 phone. In fact, it even had PlayBook OS 2.0 loaded rather than the next-gen BlackBerry platform. So what did we find out about this mysterious device?

Gallery: BlackBerry 10 dev alpha unit hands-on

Continue reading BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha hands-on

BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 May 2012 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Toshiba sings NAND Flash's praises, thinks you should too

Have you taken a moment today to stop and thank NAND Flash for existing? No? Well, Toshiba would like to say tsk, tsk. Today the company launched a full-scale campaign to promote this storage technology -- and by full-scale we mean a dedicated "25 Years of NAND Flash" website, a "NAND Flash Deprivation Experiment" video series, new Facebook and Twitter accounts and a Toshiba Excite 10 giveaway. We must have missed the memo that NAND was dangerously underappreciated, because we're still trying to figure out why it needs a marketing campaign of its own. Toshiba has a slew of laptop refreshes and the Excite 7.7 and 13 tablets just around the corner -- and that interim period between announcement and launch date can be killer -- but somehow talking up NAND Flash doesn't seem the right course of action. Take a look at the campaign's first video below the break and decide for yourself.

Continue reading Toshiba sings NAND Flash's praises, thinks you should too

Toshiba sings NAND Flash's praises, thinks you should too originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 02:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Invention could help pharmaceutical industry save money

ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2012) ? Two Michigan State University researchers have invented a protein purifier that could help pharmaceutical companies save time and money.

The details of the invention, which appear in a recent issue of the journal Langmuir, demonstrate that MSU chemists Merlin Bruening and Greg Baker's high-performance membranes are highly suitable for protein purification, a crucial step in the development of some new drugs.

Purifying proteins, the process of isolating a single, desired protein from all others, is an expensive, time-consuming hurdle that contributes to the high cost of some prescription drugs. Obtaining pure proteins, however, is a necessary step to increasing these drugs' effectiveness and safety. Streamlining the process could help manufacturers reduce costs, speed new drugs to consumers and reduce pharmaceutical costs, Bruening said.

"The membrane devices that we've manufactured can simplify protein purification by rapidly capturing the desired protein as it flows through membrane pores," said Bruening, who has patented the process and is working to scale up his invention. "Our membranes have two to three times more capacity than existing commercial devices, and they should reduce the purification process time substantially. Typically, our procedures are complete in 30 minutes or less."

The pursuit of a comparable, but complex purification procedure led to the discovery of the researchers' simpler invention. Bruening and his colleague were trying to grow extended polymer chains in the membranes in a multistep, oxygen-free process. Untangling the complexities of the first method led to the revelation that direct adsorption of acidic polymers at low pH is much simpler yet accomplishes the same task of creating extended polymer in the pores. (The purifier uses adsorption rather than absorption; the filter attracts contaminants to its surface rather than sucks them up like a sponge.)

"Once our findings began steering us toward the simpler solution, we began developing simple processes to modify membranes by simply flowing polymer solutions through the membranes," Bruening said.

The next challenge for Bruening and his colleagues will be to upscale his invention so that rapid protein purification with inexpensive membranes becomes a standard for not only pharmaceutical companies, but also researchers trying to rapidly isolate proteins to determine their structure and function.

Fellow MSU chemists Baker, Somnath Bhattacharjee, Jinlan Dong, Yiding Ma, Stacy Hovde and James Geiger and contributed to the paper.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Michigan State University.

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Journal Reference:

1. Somnath Bhattacharjee, Jinlan Dong, Yiding Ma, Stacy Hovde, James H. Geiger, Gregory L. Baker, Merlin L. Bruening. Formation of High-Capacity Protein-Adsorbing Membranes through Simple Adsorption of Poly(acrylic acid)-Containing Films at Low pH. Langmuir, 2012; : 120416151822005 DOI: 10.1021/la300481e

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Mom's Facebook photo pops up on porn, dating sites

By Helen A.S. Popkin

When Jules?Rahim posed poolside in a bikini three years ago, she never expected her picture would be posted on either a porn site or a dating website. But that's exactly what happened, the Straits Times of Singapore reports.

The Singapore mother of four (including a newborn) found out about her inadvertent adult modeling career when a friend called her with the awkward news. The bikini picture Rahim posted on her Facebook was now being used to solicit pornography. A few days later, another friend advised her that the same picture showed up on dating site sgGirls.com, illustrating an ad for a charge-per-minute telephone chat line.

"It's?embarrassing," Rahim, 32,?told the Straits Times. "People I know may think wrongly of me."?

Rahim, it seems, is the victim of photo-jacking ? the exploitation of photos scraped from Facebook and other Internet outlets. And Rahim isn't the only victim of image exploitation. The Straits Times reports there are at least two other women in Singapore whose social media photos showed up on the same sites where Rahim's picture appeared.

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  Yes, but my security settings are locked down tight -- only friends can see them.

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Rahim filed police reports against both the pornography and dating sites, and intends to file a harassment complaint as well. But there's little, if anything, authorities can do about it. Photo-jacking occupies a legal gray area in Singapore, as well as the United States.

In February, police in a small Massachusetts town?asked the FBI for assistance after photos of at least 17 high school girls turned up on pornographic websites. For the most part, the girls were fully clothed in the photos, which were reportedly taken from Facebook and other social networks. As with Rahim, the victims had?little legal recourse against the website.

The photos didn't constitute child pornography because the girls were fully clothed. Further, the U.S. Communications Decency Act of 1996 protects Internet service providers ? including websites and blogs, in this instance?? that host the purloined images. Victims who want their photos removed have the option of claiming copyright infringement. Even then, the burden of proof remains on the plaintiff, as the copyright is generally owned by the person who snapped the shot, not the person in the picture.

In Singapore, Rahim isn't letting it drop. "I want to sue them," Rahim told the Straits Times. "These websites have no right to use my pictures without my consent." The dating site sgGirls.com is hosted in Dusseldorf, Germany and the pornography site is hosted in Los Angeles, California ? so both sites operate outside of Singapore law enforcement. Rahim has attempted to contact sgGirls.com site and request that the site remove her photo, but hasn't heard back.

The obvious advice in such cases of photo explotation is to remind users to lock down their social media privacy settings, but even then it may not be enough. It's always possible the perpetrator is a so-called "friend," on Facebook and elsewhere. And even the tightest privacy settings can't protect you from bad "friends."

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job?on?Twitter?and/or?Facebook. Also,?Google+.

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