Google Enterprise boss says company is ‘doubling down’ on business services, targeting Microsoft

In an interview with AllThingsD, Amit Singh, Google’s (GOOG) VP of Enterprise, said the company is embracing the consumerization of the enterprise in 2013 based on the successes its seen with Google Drive and Google Apps this year. Singh says Google is finally confident that it can deliver enterprise services and tools that rival those of Microsoft (MSFT) with cloud applications that scale better...

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Delays litter long road to vehicle rearview rules

 In the private hell of a mother's grief, the sounds come back to Judy Neiman. The SUV door slamming. The slight bump as she backed up in the bank parking lot. The emergency room doctor's sobs as he said her 9-year-old daughter Sydnee, who previously had survived four open heart surgeries, would not make it this time. Her own cries of: How could I have missed seeing her? The 53-year-old woman...

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Chipmaker Marvell loses $1.17 billion patent verdict

A federal jury on Wednesday found that Marvell Technology Group infringed two patents held by Carnegie Mellon University, and ordered the chipmaker to pay $1.17 billion in damages.The award is one of the largest by a jury in a U.S. patent case, and is nearly twice Marvell's profit in its latest fiscal year. It followed a month-long trial in the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, the home of Carnegie...

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Phablet wars heat up with ZTE’s quad-core Nubia Z5

2013 is shaping up to be the year of the “phablet” with virtually ever major handset maker preparing to challenge Samsung’s (005930) impressive Galaxy Note lineup. While there’s no clear definition on how large a phablet is, most tend to have screens that hover in the 5-inch range, though Huawei’s upcoming 6.1-inch smartphone will only push that boundary. ZTE’s newly announced Nubia Z5 packs a 5-inch...

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Temple Run was downloaded more than 2.5 million times on Christmas Day

Millions of men, woman and children awoke on December 25th to find a smartphone or tablet under their Christmas tree. After opening these gifts, users are typically quick to fire up their new devices and download the most popular apps. Keith Shepherd, founder of Imangi Studios, announced on Wednesday that the company’s Temple Run game saw unprecedented attention on Christmas Day. The executive revealed...

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Fixing the GOP: Party Like It's 1949

Americans by a 15-point margin in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say the Republican Party needs less conservative policies that are more focused on middle- and lower-income Americans, rather than better leaders to sell its existing positions.And 63 years ago, Americans by an 11-point margin said precisely the same thing.See PDF with full results, charts and tables here.Mark it up to the...

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Obama nominating Kerry for secretary of state

 President Barack Obama on Friday will nominate Sen. John Kerry as his next secretary of state, a senior administration official said, making the first move in an overhaul of his national security team heading into a second term.If confirmed, Kerry would take the helm at the State Department from outgoing Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has long stated her intention to leave early next...

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Obama nominates Kerry for secretary of state

 President Barack Obama on Friday nominated Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, one of Washington's most respected voices on foreign policy, as his next secretary of state.The move is the first in an expected overhaul of Obama's national security team heading into his second term.As the nation's top diplomat, Kerry will not only be tasked with executing the president's foreign policy objectives, but...

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Son says Romney was reluctant to run for president again: report

 Republican Mitt Romney's family had to convince him to make a second bid for the presidency because he was reluctant to run again after failing to secure his party's nomination in 2008, Romney's son told the Boston Globe on Sunday.In an article that examined what went wrong with Romney's losing 2012 presidential campaign, Tagg Romney said his father Mitt said he had no intention of running again...

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Deportations of illegal immigrants in 2012 reach new US record

The Obama administration deported at least 400,000 illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2012, a new record. It emphasizes deporting 'criminal aliens' to protect public safety, but the high figure serves to remind Latinos of the president's unfilled pledge to reform immigration poli...

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Existing home sales rise to fastest pace in three years

Home resales rose sharply in November to their fastest pace in three years, a sign the recovery in the housing market is gaining steam.The National Association of Realtors said on Thursday that existing home sales climbed 5.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million units.That was the fastest since November 2009, when a federal tax credit for home buyers was due to expire....

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New York City should hike taxes on big business-comptroller

 New York City's top financial officer and possible contender for mayor in 2013, John Liu, proposed on Thursday tax hikes for big businesses and an end to Madison Square Garden's $15 million annual property tax exemption.The proposals by New York City Comptroller John Liu include tax hikes on private equity firms, which would help offset his plan for $500 million in tax breaks and lowered fines...

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Republicans push own "fiscal cliff" plan; talks frozen

 Republicans in the Congress pushed ahead on Thursday with a "fiscal cliff" plan that stands no chance of becoming law as time runs short to reach a deal with President Barack Obama to avert a Washington-induced economic recession.House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" to limit income-tax increases to the wealthiest sliver of the population appeared likely to pass the House...

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Canada's seven-month budget gap narrows to C$10.6 billion

Canada's federal budget deficit narrowed in the first seven months of the fiscal year to C$10.57 billion ($10.68 billion) from C$13.90 billion in the same period last year as personal and corporate income tax revenues rose and debt charges were lower.The monthly shortfall in October was C$1.68 billion, compared with a gap of C$2.13 billion a year earlier, the Department of Finance said in a report...

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"Fiscal cliff" creates waiting game for payrolls firms

At payroll processing businesses across the United States, the "fiscal cliff" stalemate in Washington means uncertainty over tax-withholding tables just days before the start of 2013.The U.S. Internal Revenue Service still has not issued the tables for next year that show how much money employers should hold back from workers' paychecks to cover federal income taxes.Payroll processors need the tables...

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Meeting delay a sign of cooling US-Vietnam ties

The U.S. and Vietnam, former enemies who share concerns about China's rise, are finding that one issue — human rights — is keeping them from becoming closer friends.Stress between the nations is clear from a delay in an annual meeting between Washington and Hanoi on human-rights concerns. Such consultations have been held every year since 2006, but the last ones in November 2011 produced little, and...

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Court OKs sale of U.S. government-backed A123 to Chinese firm

China's largest auto parts maker got court approval on Tuesday for its controversial purchase of A123 Systems Inc, a bankrupt maker of electric car batteries, but the judge said he was troubled that a U.S. rival might be working to kill the deal.A123, which was partly funded with U.S. government money, was sold at an auction on Saturday for $256.6 million to Wanxiang Group of China, which outbid Johnson...

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Google explains cause of massive Gmail, Chrome outages

Users took to social networks on Monday to vent their displeasure with Google (GOOG) following a 40-minute disruption of service affecting the company’s Chrome Web browser and Gmail service. It was previously unclear what caused the services to simultaneously crash and some suspected the company was hit with a denial-of-service attack. Google engineer Tim Steele took to the company’s developer forums...

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Facebook helps FBI bust cybercriminals blamed for $850 million losses

 Investigators led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and aided by Facebook Inc, have busted an international criminal ring that infected 11 million computers around the world and caused more than $850 million in total losses in one of the largest cybercrime hauls in history.The FBI, working in concert with the world's largest social network and several international law enforcement agencies,...

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As China handset makers upgrade chips, pressure remains on profit margins

Chinese mobile phone makers chasing market share with lower prices in the world's biggest smartphone market will see their margins continue to be pressured as they upgrade to quad-core chips to satisfy demand from users for faster speeds and flashier graphics.Most smartphones now are equipped with single and dual-core chips, but Chinese handset makers are planning quad-core powered devices as consumers...

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Mother loses legal fight to stop son's cancer radiotherapy

LONDON (Reuters) - A mother in Britain, who was so desperate to stop her cancer-stricken son having to undergo conventional medical treatment that she went into hiding with him, lost a court battle on Friday to prevent him receiving radiotherapy.The case of Sally Roberts, 37, a New Zealander living in Brighton, southern England, and the plight of her seven-year-old son has made headlines in Britain.Roberts...

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Instant View - Third quarter GDP revised down, public finances worsen

LONDON (Reuters) - The Office for National Statistics released revised third-quarter GDP figures and November public sector finances data on Friday.****************************************************KEY POINTS- Biggest quarterly increase in GDP since Q3 2007- Biggest quarterly increase in industrial output since Q2 2010- Biggest quarterly increase in services output since Q3 2007- Biggest quarterly...

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Budget deficit worsens, credit rating at risk

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's budget deficit worsened in November, data showed on Friday, increasing the risk it will lose its top-notch credit rating and overshoot this year's borrowing forecast.The data - which showed public sector net borrowing, excluding financial sector interventions, hit 17.5 billion pounds last month - is gloomy news for Britain's coalition government.Deficit reduction and preserving...

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Stalin's birthday marked in Russia and beyond

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — People across the vast territory where Josef Stalin once imposed his terror have marked the 133rd anniversary of the dictator's birth, some in hatred but others in reverence.In Moscow, several hundred Russian Communists led by their leader Gennady Zuyganov laid flowers at Stalin's grave at the Red Square Friday, while smaller rallies were held across Russia and several former...

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Margaret Thatcher in hospital after operation

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the country's first woman elective leader, is in hospital recovering from surgery to remove a growth on her bladder, a source close to the family said on Friday.After experiencing pain in her bladder earlier in the week, he 87-year-old went to hospital where she underwent a minimally invasive operation, Tim Bell, a public relations...

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