Four Android productivity apps you should use in 2013

Happy New Year! Like most folks, I am working on some resolutions for 2013. One resolution I have is to be more productive. One way I am going to do this is by using my Android phone better. Now there are apps that I have, but really have not used to their fullest. As I work on this resolution, I might discover even better apps. For now I will focus on these impressive apps that can make anyone more productive.

I use Hootsuite on the computer, but rarely find myself engaging with it on my smartphone. With Hootsuite, you can manage Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare accounts. The free version allows for up to five accounts and one member of your team to access the account. There is a pro version with a monthly fee, in which you can have more accounts and team members and helpful analytics tools.

The design of the app is very good. If you sync the web version to mobile, you will have everything automatically downloaded to the phone. When viewing content, you swipe left or right to change columns or streams. If you are in the middle of a stream, simply tap the top menu bar to automatically return to the top. The app allows for multiple profiles and scheduled tweets. My goal is to keep up with my feeds and tweets in real-time rather than waiting until I get to a computer.

Another web service that I started to use, but find myself not using it to the fullest. Producteev is a web-based task management service. With Producteev you can work as an individual or in a team by setting up workspaces and then organize tasks by labels. For each task you can assign a priority, due date, and share with team members, if you have any. Overall, this is a great service, since I like making lists, even though I rarely remember having made them.

The Producteev app is available for all platforms. The app has a very clean interface and is easy to find tasks. Probably the best way to keep up with tasks is to use the different widget for the home screen. Seeing the widgets will help keep those key tasks in the forefront of your mind. The app will work offline and syncs in the background.

I read blogs every single day, especially those related to new apps, Android, or mobile news. The only way I can do that is via my Google Reader. I find myself trying to catch up each day on the computer (just like with Twitter activity) when I would be better off reading a little bit over time during the day. NewsRob is a Google Reader that I have had for years. The interface is very clean and easy to use. The developer created a bunch of customizations options, which really make this reader stand out.

With NewsRob you can set up a notification of new articles, how you synchronize with Google and when, how many articles to keep in your cache, and more. If you set up folders within Google Reader, NewsRob will download the folders, too. This enables you to read the posts by blog or folder. The app provides a very clean blogpost display optimized for smaller screens. With each post you can zoom in or out, mark a post read or unread, view in the browser, and share the link to email or services such as Evernote. There is a free version of the app.

The last task I need to work on to be more productive is to keep up with the calendar. I find myself checking on the computer, after the fact, finding out that I am either late or forgot about a meeting or appointment. Using Google calendar is a good place to start, but I have not found the standard calendar app on my Droid was all that helpful.

Business Calendar is a very capable calendar app that has a ton of features. The app lets you view your calendar in a number of different views, and has search and favorite-calendar features, to name a few. The option of viewing different calendars, color coding and being able to easily add, delete, and edit events is helpful. The ability to use widgets for reminders is important. The pro version has over 10 different sizes and allows for the import or export of calendar files in the iCalendar format. Business Calendar also has a free version.

So my top goal or resolution for 2013 is to be more productive. I think using these apps more will help me accomplish that goal. Are there any apps you have but not using to their fullest? What resolutions do you have for 2013?

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Playboy Hugh Hefner marries his ‘runaway bride’

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hugh Hefner is celebrating the new year as a married man once again.

The 86-year-old Playboy magazine founder exchanged vows with his “runaway bride,” Crystal Harris, at a private Playboy Mansion ceremony on New Year’s Eve. Harris, a 26-year-old “Playmate of the Month” in 2009, broke off a previous engagement to Hefner just before they were to be married in 2011.

Playboy said on Tuesday that the couple celebrated at a New Year’s Eve party at the mansion with guests that included comic Jon Lovitz, Gene Simmons of KISS and baseball star Evan Longoria.

The bride wore a strapless gown in soft pink, Hefner a black tux. Hefner’s been married twice before but lived the single life between 1959 and 1989.

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Mood drug no help for smoking cessation in prison study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The addition of the antidepressant nortriptyline to conventional smoking cessation therapy didn’t improve the chances of longterm success among male prisoners, Australian researchers have found.

Depression and other mental illnesses raise the likelihood of smoking, and quitting can depress a person’s mood – which in turn can make it harder to quit. Studies have shown that antidepressants, including nortriptyline, can improve the success of smoking cessation efforts.

And prison inmates are notoriously heavy smokers, with higher rates of depression and other mental illness than the general population.

But the new study found that nortriptyline (marketed as Aventyl) – which is not FDA-approved for smoking cessation but often is used for that purpose – did not seem to help inmate smokers stay tobacco-free over time.

Compliance with the therapy appeared to a significant issue, however, said Robyn Richmond, a public health researcher at the University of New South Wales, in Kensington, who led the study.

Prisoners who were faithful to the treatment as ordered at least three-quarters of the time were much more likely to break their smoking habit than those who could not stick to the regimen, Richmond told Reuters Health.

Another factor, Richmond added, was that the prison population in the study tended to migrate, making follow-up of the participants difficult.

“One thinks that you have a captive audience” in prison studies, she said. “However, half of the prisoners were either transferred to another prison within the study or released into the community.”

The study, which appears in the journal Addiction, included 425 male inmates from prisons across Australia. All were smokers, with a habit lasting on average 20 years and more than 23 cigarettes a day.

Nearly three-quarters of the inmates in the study had tried to quit in the previous year, according to the researchers.

All of the prisoners in the study received 10 weeks of smoking cessation therapy consisting of nicotine patches and two sessions of behavioral counseling. To that was added either a dummy pill or nortriptyline.

The researchers recorded the inmates’ tobacco use at three, six and 12 months after the end of treatment, relying on self-reporting and direct measurements of exhaled carbon monoxide, a byproduct of smoking.

At the three-month mark, about one-quarter of prisoners who had received the antidepressant had managed to stay off smoking continuously, compared with 16 percent of those who had not taken the drug. But by the one year mark, the abstinence rate had fallen to about 11 percent for both groups.

Psychologist Karen Cropsey, a smoking researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said most jails and prisons in the United States have significantly restricted tobacco use by inmates. Roughly half of prisons, and many jails, now ban smoking completely, she said, while facilities that permit it typically require inmates to go outside to smoke.

Cropsey, who has studied tobacco use by female inmates, said the latest work is the first to look at smoking by male inmates.

Source: http://bit.ly/U67ejn Addiction, online December 11, 2012.

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Obama urges House to back deal

1 January 2013 Last updated at 12:45 ET

US President Barack Obama has urged the House of Representatives to back a Senate-approved deal to prevent sweeping tax rises and spending cuts known as the “fiscal cliff”.

These came into effect at midnight when George W Bush-era tax cuts expired, although few effects will be felt immediately as Tuesday is a US holiday.

House Republicans were to meet at 13:00 (18:00 GMT) to discuss their strategy.

There is pressure for a vote before financial markets reopen on Wednesday.

However, the speaker of the Republican-led House, John Boehner, has not endorsed the Senate deal and there is expected to be some opposition from Republican representatives.

Mr Boehner has pledged either a vote or the tabling of an alternative measure. The House has now reconvened.

‘Without delay’

The Senate-backed bill, which raises taxes for the wealthy, was passed in the early hours of Tuesday by 89 votes to eight after lengthy talks between Vice-President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans.

Continue reading the main story

What is the fiscal cliff?

• On 1 January 2013, tax rises and huge spending cuts come into force – the so-called fiscal cliff


• The deadline was put in place in 2011 to force the president and Congress to reach agreement on the budget over the next 10 years


• Date coincides with expiry of Bush-era tax cuts


• There are fear that raising taxes while massively cutting spending will have a huge impact on households and businesses


• The fiscal squeeze could also push the US into recession, and have a global impact

Spending cuts have been delayed for two months to allow a wider agreement.

In hailing the Senate vote, President Obama stressed the urgency of a House approval.

He said in a statement: “While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they wanted, this agreement is the right thing to do for our country and the House should pass it without delay.”

He said: “Leaders from both parties in the Senate came together to reach an agreement that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support that protects 98% of Americans and 97% of small business owners from a middle class tax hike.”

Mr Boehner and other top Republican leaders said in their statement: “Decisions about whether the House will seek to accept or promptly amend the measure will not be made until House members – and the American people – have been able to review the legislation.”

On Tuesday, one senior Republican aide told Reuters news agency that the party’s House members were meeting at 13:00 local time to discuss a “path forward”. Mr Biden is also meeting House Democrats.

Voters had mixed opinions about the Senate deal

The BBC’s Zoe Conway in Washington says that, with some Republicans expressing their unhappiness with the tax increases, the passage of the Senate’s bill is far from guaranteed.

Representative Tim Huelskamp told CNN he would be voting no, saying the legislation would damage small businesses.

However, fellow Republican House member Tom Cole told MSNBC that the Senate deal should be accepted.

“We know the essential details and I think putting to bed this thing before the markets [open on Wednesday] is really a pretty important thing to do,” he said.

As the House reconvened on Tuesday, a number of representatives from both parties expressed concerns about the deal.

The Virginia Democrat, Jim Moran Jr, said it was “a bad deal for America” that simply set up further fiscal cliffs to overcome in the coming months.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

American politicians certainly know how to take it to the wire – and just a little bit beyond”

End Quote

The current House can legislate until Wednesday, when it is replaced by a new chamber chosen during last November’s election.

Analysts warn that if the full effects of the fiscal cliff were allowed to take hold, the resulting reduction in consumer spending could spark a new recession.

The 1 January deadline triggers tax increases of about $ 536bn and spending cuts of $ 109bn from domestic and military programmes.

The compromise deal reached on Monday seeks to avoid this by extending the tax cuts for Americans earning under $ 400,000 (£246,000) – up from the $ 250,000 level Democrats had originally sought.

In addition to the income tax rates and spending cuts, the package includes:

• Rises in inheritance taxes from 35% to 40% after the first $ 5m for an individual and $ 10m for a couple


• Rises in capital taxes – affecting some investment income – of up to 20%, but less than the 39.6% that would prevail without a deal


• One-year extension for unemployment benefits, affecting two million people


• Five-year extension for tax credits that help poorer and middle-class families

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France counts 1,193 cars torched on New Year’s Eve

PARIS (AP) — A New Year’s Eve tradition for some in France of torching empty, parked cars has continued.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday that 1,193 vehicles were burned overnight around the country, where the stunt began in the 1990s.

There was no way to compare this figure to recent ones because the conservative government of former President Nicolas Sarkozy stopped making the numbers public while he was in office. But the rate of burned cars was apparently steady. On Dec. 31, 2009, 1,147 vehicles were burned.

For some, the decision of France’s current Socialist government to resume making public figures of New Year’s Eve’s torched cars is unwise.

Bruno Beschizza, a security chief for Sarkozy’s UMP party, said on iTele TV that publishing the numbers motivates youths to commit such crimes.

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iPad App Video Review: Anomaly Korea

The tower offense pioneers over at 11 Bit Studios finally released the sequel to their smash hit, Anomaly Warzone Earth. They branched out a bit, releasing the amusing Funky Smugglers and the dreamlike puzzler, Sleepwalker’s Journey, but now they’re back, and as this game will remind you a few times, Baghdad was just the beginning. The battle against a mysterious alien tower menace continues with new visuals, units, modes, and an awesome but sometimes hilarious Korean undertone.

The core game here is still the same, with you planning convoy routes through enemy infested streets, able to change your route on the fly. You technically continue to play as the invisible but ever-present commando unit, with your various power-ups, such as smoke screen, repair field, and others, activating and placing them with a simple tap or two. New units like the Horangi tank join your ranks, with unique unit abilities, like the aforementioned tank’s area of effect blast. As you make your way through the world, you’ll collect resources and upgrade units as well.

It’s not just new unit and enemy types mixing things up. For example, there are now artillery zones that will automatically be targeted and be fired upon as you pass through them, but only after a short countdown. Subtle additions like this are quite elegant, adding more dimensions of strategy without changing anything from previous games. Another great new addition is the Art of War trials. As you play and do well, you’ll unlock these brief but brutal challenges, and they are very satisfying to complete.

The visuals have received an upgrade, as has the voice acting. Still, there’s something kind of funny about all the Korean accented English speaking, along with the still excellent Asian-styled soundtrack. It’s not bad at all, but can feel out of place at first. All in all, Anomaly Korea offers more of the same, but improved, building upon the last game in all the right ways. You don’t even need to have played the first game to enjoy this one, so go ahead and download it for the current price of three dollars. I can’t wait to see where in the world this anomaly pops up next.

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Armstrong better, Green Day to resume tour in 2013

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Green Day is going back out on the road.

The Grammy-winning punk band announced new tour dates Monday.

The band canceled the rest of its 2012 club schedule and postponed the start of a 2013 arena tour after singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong‘s substance abuse problems emerged publicly in September when he had a profane meltdown on the stage of the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.

Armstrong told fans in a statement Monday that he’s “getting better every day” and “the show must go on.”

The tour is scheduled to begin March 28 at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago area.

The band released its most recent album, “Tre,” on Dec. 11, more than a month ahead of schedule.

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Palestinians say 9 dead from swine flu outbreak

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A Palestinian health official says an outbreak swine flu has killed nine people.

Deputy Health Minister Asad Ramlawi also said Monday more than 225 people have been infected by the H1N1 influenza strain, known as swine flu. He said more than 25,000 vaccinations have been administered this year to prevent it. The West Bank has 2.5 million residents.

The West Bank has been struck by swine flu before. Dozens died in the Palestinian territories during the 2009 worldwide pandemic.

The first outbreak was discovered in Mexico in March 2009. Thousands died around the world, causing a global panic. The World Health Organization declared swine flu the first global flu pandemic in 40 years.

H1N1 is now considered a seasonal flu and included in the standard annual flu vaccine.

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Obama: Cliff deal ‘within sight’

31 December 2012 Last updated at 14:18 ET

A deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” of tax rises and spending cuts is “within sight” – but not yet done, US President Barack Obama has said.

But he told an audience of taxpayers it was unlikely that a “grand bargain” on tax and spending would happen.

Democrats are said to have offered to extend tax cuts on couples earning up to $ 450,000 (£277,000). But divisions remain over how to tackle spending.

Analysts say failure to reach a deal by 1 January could spark a new recession.

Speaking just hours ahead of the midnight deadline for a deal to avert tax rises and spending cuts, the president said: “There are still issues left to resolve but we’re hopeful Congress can get it done.”

Any deal needs to pass the 100-member Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, before heading to the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold the majority.

Agreeing to a $ 450,000 threshold ($ 400,000 for couples) would be a notable compromise by Democrats, analysts say.

The party previously only wanted tax rate extensions for earnings under $ 200,000 (£123,000) for individuals and $ 250,000 (£154,000) for couples.

But after weeks of increasingly desperate horse trading and public pronouncements, the “contours” of a deal were said to be emerging just hours before the midnight deadline.

Inheritance tax rates and the continuation of unemployment benefits were also part of the deal-making, reports said, but disagreements remained over how to deal with the automatic spending cuts due to kick in on 1 January.

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Pope marks end of difficult year, notes God’s good

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI marked the end of a difficult year Monday by saying that despite all the death and injustice in the world, goodness prevails.

Benedict celebrated New Year’s Eve with a vespers service in St. Peter’s Basilica to give thanks for 2012 and look ahead to 2013. He appeared tired during the service and used a cane afterward — an indication that the busy Christmas season may be taking a toll on the 85-year-old Benedict.

In his homily, Benedict said it’s tough to remember that goodness prevails when bad news — death, violence and injustice — “makes more noise than good.” He said taking time to meditate in prolonged reflection and prayer can help “find healing from the inevitable wounds of daily life.”

This past year was full of highs and lows for the pope, including a successful trip to Mexico and Cuba but also the betrayal of his butler, convicted in October of stealing Benedict’s personal papers and leaking them to a journalist.

After the service, Benedict was brought out in a covered car to pray before the Vatican’s main nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square. Walking with a cane in the chilly piazza, Benedict chatted animatedly with the artist who crafted the scene, which recreated an entire village from the poor, southern Italian region of Basilicata which donated this year’s crèche.

The Vatican gladly accepted Basilicata’s donation after the €550,000 price tag the Vatican paid for the 2009 nativity scene was revealed in the documentation leaked by Benedict’s ex-butler Paolo Gabriele.

Gabriele was convicted of aggravated theft by a Vatican tribunal and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He received a pre-Christmas papal pardon and is expected to soon leave his Vatican City apartment for a new home and job elsewhere.

On Tuesday morning, Benedict celebrates a New Year’s Day Mass, which the Catholic Church celebrates as its world day of peace.

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