Defiant Armstrong: I AM a seven-times Tour champion

By Eurosport | World of Sport –

Lance Armstrong remains defiant despite giving up his fight against doping charges brought by the US Anti-Doping Authority.

The American used a speech at a cancer convention on Wednesday (shown in the video  above) to introduce himself as a seven-times Tour de France winner. He insisted that he would not let the shadow of doping allegations get in the way of his fundraising efforts, which have contributed just under half a billion dollars for the fight against cancer.

From the moment that he gave up his fight against the charges Armstrong has claimed that the USADA do not have the power to strip him of his seven Tour de France titles, accusing the organisation of making him the victim of an "unconstitutional witch-hunt".

"USADA cannot assert control of a professional international sport and attempt to strip my seven Tour de France titles," Armstrong said.

"I know who won those seven Tours, my team-mates know who won those seven Tours, and everyone I competed against knows who won those seven Tours."

The USADA claims that it does indeed have the power to strip Armstrong of his victories, though they are still in a tussle over jurisdiction with cycling's governing body the UCI.

For now, though, the official Tour de France website still lists Armstrong as the winner of the race from 1999 to 2005 inclusive - but the question of what would happen to the record books if Armstrong is stripped of his titles is unclear.

All but one of the cyclists who finished second to Armstrong - Alex Zuelle, Jan Ullrich (who lost to Armstrong three times), Andreas Kloeden and Ivan Basso - were subsequently banned for doping offences. The other, Joseba Beloki, was one of the riders at the centre of the Operacion Puerto doping investigation, though he was later cleared.

Samsung unveils Windows phone, new Galaxy Note

JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics, 

presents the new Samsung Galaxy Note II smartphone during the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event in 

Berlin, August 29, 2012. REUTERS/Thomas Peter 

By Tarmo Virki and Miyoung Kim

BERLIN/SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics became the first handset maker to announce a smartphone using Microsoft's latest mobile software, making its surprise, hurried announcement just days before the highly anticipated launch of Nokia's version.

The brief announcement on Wednesday at a Berlin electronics show comes amid expectations that smartphone makers may turn increasingly to Windows devices after a U.S. jury decided many of Samsung's Google (NSQ:GOOG - News) Android-based phones infringed Apple Inc (NSQ:AAPL - News) patents.

"It looks like a good phone, and seems like a pre-emptive announcement ahead of Nokia," said Sid Parakh, an analyst at investment firm McAdams Wright Ragen, of the Samsung phone.

"Microsoft or Windows never got their best teams, never got their best designs, just because Android was doing so well. With the change in the legal environment, there's a case to be made that Samsung will likely shift some of those resources to broaden out or diversify their own exposure."

Nokia, the ailing Finnish mobile firm, once the world's leading producer of phones but now struggling to reverse losses, is due to unveil its new Lumia line of smartphones using Windows Phone 8 in New York on September 5.

Samsung's new phone called ATIV S -- tacked onto the end of a long news conference in Berlin that focused on other products -- may elevate expectations for the Lumia. Samsung's ATIV S Windows phone sports a high-end 4.8-inch display, Corning "Gorilla" glass, and an 8-megapixel rear camera and 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera, Microsoft posted on its official blog on Wednesday.

"Expectations for a 40 megapixel or possibly 20 megapixel camera model are running high. If Nokia does not unveil a monster camera handset next week, many will be disappointed," said Tero Kuittinen, analyst at mobile analytics firm Alekstra.

But "this leaves Nokia plenty of room to draw a clear contrast with its upcoming announcement."

Samsung's Windows-based smartphone, introduced on Wednesday, marks the first in a "big lineup of new hardware" from the South Korean company based on Microsoft's software, Microsoft executive Ben Rudolph said in a blog posting.

Analysts say the introduction of Samsung's Windows phone may be designed to assuage concerns that Microsoft will favor Nokia, whose Chief Executive Stephen Elop -- himself a former senior Microsoft executive -- has staked its future on the Windows platform.

"The fact Samsung was allowed to be the first to announce is Microsoft's backhanded way of letting other vendors know that Nokia is not getting special treatment," Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said.

But Jack Gold, an independent mobile consultant who runs J. Gold Associates, argued Samsung had signalled its commitment to Windows for a while, but Nokia will remain the primary driver of the new breed of Microsoft-powered devices.

"Samsung has crossed the start line first and set the bar for Nokia's launch," said Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight.

STEALING A MARCH

Microsoft gave a preview of its Windows Phone 8 software in June, and promised the first phones would be on the market by the autumn.

Windows Phone 8 looks similar to, and is built on the same core code as Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 operating system, but is not the same product. Windows 8, which will run on tablets and PCs, is scheduled to launch on October 26.

Samsung said the ATIV phone would hit stores in the October-November period but did not give an exact start date.

On Wednesday, the Korean corporation also showed off a slew of tablets using Windows 8 software and the second generation of its popular Google Android-based Galaxy Note phone-cum-tablet "phablet" in downtown Berlin.

Samsung has sold some 10 million of its original Galaxy Note devices, creating a new product category which has smaller screen than tablets, but bigger than smartphones.

"I am pretty confident it will even outsell its predecessor," said JK Shin, Samsung's chief of mobile business.

Samsung hopes the new device will take the focus away from its loss of the court case. Apple is now seeking speedy bans on the sale of eight Samsung phones, moving swiftly to turn legal victory into tangible business gain.

Samsung hopes the phablet upgrade will lift any post-Apple gloom. The new version of the Note features a thinner and slightly bigger 5.5-inch screen, quad-core processor, the latest version of the Android operating system called Jellybean, and improved stylus function.

"There won't be huge innovative changes in design, but the Note 2 will feature quite a few improvements and enable Samsung to carry on its strong sales momentum in the category," said Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. "With the launch, Samsung will also be trying to turn around downbeat sentiment after the U.S. legal defeat."

Apple did not include the Note and other newly unveiled Samsung products in its original lawsuit. But the company and its lawyers are expected by many legal experts to try and use last week's legal victory to go after future gadgets, especially because the jury found infringing features in Samsung phones such as pinch-and-zoom and bounce-back -- common in Android.

Shares of Microsoft finished up 2 cents at $30.65 on Wednesday. (Reporting by Harro ten Wolde and Tarmo Virki in Berlin, Bill Rigby in Seattle, Miyoung Kim in Seoul; Editing by Edwin Chan and Tim Dobbyn)

Mommy Dionisia Fainted After Pacman Lost

Mommy Dionisia faints after Pacman lost to Bradley....

                                                           Why? Is it the money?

                                              It's not like Manny got really beaten up!



                                                                      *sigh*

PINOY PASAWAY talaga!

The Husband & Wife Team Behind Temple Run

Temple Run creators Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova have turned the mobile gaming boom into a million-dollar business.

Love manifests itself in many ways. For Keith Shepherd, it was evident when his then-friend Natalia Luckyanova beat him in Mario Kart.

Now married, the couple still have video games at the heart of their relationship. In fact, it's a family business, and a booming one at that--thanks in part to the current surge in the mobile gaming industry.

Shepherd and Luckyanova are the founders of Imangi Studios, the developer behind the addictive mobile game Temple Run. The game—in which users play a thief running through a hidden temple—has captured the attention (and thumbs) of millions worldwide. “One day, I was on the Metro in D.C., and I saw two girls in front of me playing Temple Run and passing the phone back and forth,” Shepherd says. “It’s completely mind-blowing.”

Temple Run, which is available for Android and iOS devices, is free to download and gives users the option to buy virtual coins that can be redeemed for in-game upgrades, including invisibility. Since it debuted last August, the game has been downloaded more than 70 million times. The Android version, launched in April, already has been downloaded more than 15 million times. All told, Temple Run has generated more than $1 million in sales, Shepherd says.

The game’s overwhelming success was unexpected, according to Shepherd, who created it with his wife in their one-bedroom apartment in Washington, D.C. (Or, as Luckyanova jokingly refers to it, “Imangi Studios's world headquarters.”)

The most popular mobile games—Omgpop’s Draw Something and Rovio’s Angry Birds, for example—tend to have bright colors and a cheery theme, Shepherd explains. Temple Run, however, uses dark colors and has a more menacing premise. In the game, a red-haired thief has stolen an idol from a temple and is being chased by a hungry pack of animals. Players must swipe up, down, left, or right and tilt their smartphone or tablet to avoid obstacles and keep the thief from falling into the water below.

“We really wanted to make a game that we wanted to play and looked how we wanted it to look,” Shepherd says.

Rocky Start

At first, it seemed like that approach might not pay off. Although Temple Run, which then cost 99 cents to download, received overwhelmingly positive reviews immediately after launch, the number of new users began to trail off after two weeks.

A month after its debut, Shepherd switched to a "freemium" pricing model, allowing users to download a basic version for free and pay for enhancements. The game quickly vaulted to No. 2 on Apple’s App Store list of free apps and was downloaded some 200,000 times a day at its height.

Only 1% of Temple Run players purchase in-game upgrades, Shepherd says. But with more than 70 million users, that translates into 700,000 paying customers. Temple Run was one of the highest-grossing games in the App Store in January, according to Apple.

Temple Run has become so popular, many assume a large development team created it, Shepherd says. This isn’t the first time Imangi has been mistaken for a larger company. When it launched its sixth title, Harbor Master, in 2009, the game quickly became the third-ranked paid app in Apple’s App Store. At its peak, the game, which challenges users to control boat traffic, was downloaded 10,000 times a day. That’s when Luckyanova began receiving email requests to speak with the company’s director of marketing.

First Love, Then Marriage, Then a Game

Luckyanova and Shepherd became friends in 2003, when they were both working for Vecna Technologies, a health care software developer in Washington, D.C. They started dating a year later, after Luckyanova left to pursue a master’s degree in computer science at Boston University, and married in 2007.

Shepherd launched Imangi in 2008, and Luckyanova joined the company after it turned a profit about a year later, generating $40,000 in revenue. The couple have lived and worked together ever since. “It’s awesome to be able to share this aspect of our lives,” Shepherd says. “And I think our skills complement one another very well.”

In order to develop more advanced games, Imangi placed greater emphasis on graphics, using freelancers before hiring Kiril Tchangov to work remotely as the company’s artist. Tchagnov designed Harbor Master, which is now available in free and $1.99 versions. Recently, Imangi hired Dimensional Branding Group to handle an influx of branding and licensing requests. Their first licensed product, a board game inspired by Temple Run, is due out later this year.

Shepherd and Luckyanova still don’t have corporate offices, but they have expanded from a one-bedroom apartment to a house. Soon, a third person will join them in the home office: They are expecting their first child in June.

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/husband-wife-team-behind-temple-110034369.html