We learn a lot about Tony Stark in the latest issue of the Iron Man comic book.
By Alex Zalben
It's just over a month since Apple threw its big iPhone 5s/5c event over in Cupertino, but the company's already back with more to discuss -- or "cover," as it were. New iPads? A refreshed Apple TV? More Maverick goodness? Your guess is as good as ours. Thankfully, we don't have to wait that much ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/h4R9-IOsINY/By Caroline Humer
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans hitting roadblocks on the new U.S. government-run healthcare website have been contacting insurers directly and enrolling in plans away from the federal marketplace, representing a lost opportunity for President Barack Obama's landmark reform.
Since its launch on October 1, technical problems have stalled Healthcare.gov, the website meant to help millions of uninsured Americans sign up for coverage as part of the biggest U.S. social program since Medicare plans for the elderly launched in the 1960s.
Nearly a dozen insurance companies offering plans on the exchange who were interviewed by Reuters say they have received at most a trickle of enrollments through the federal marketplace serving 36 states, some of them with errors that require the insurers to separately verify information about applicants.
At the same time, consumer inquiries at insurance company call centers and websites are up, in some case even double the amount of normal traffic. When they hear from potential customers who appear to qualify for government subsidized plans, they take phone numbers, create shopping baskets for the plans they like and send them to Healthcare.gov to verify eligibility.
But if the shoppers do not qualify for a subsidy, insurers say they sell them a plan directly. More often than not, those plans are individual policies that are not available on the government-run exchange.
PHONES RINGING 'OFF THE HOOK'
Health First Health Plans in Florida, one of nine insurers selling individual plans in the state through Healthcare.gov, has sold only a handful of exchange-based plans through the government marketplace.
But its phones have been ringing "off the hook" since October 1, said Jason Alford, director of individual and marketplace sales. Many of the sales are for plans that extend coverage from 2013 into 2014 and that do not include many of the government program's most significant benefit requirements.
"We have begun taking a number of off-exchange applications," Alford said.
A chain of five Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plans, including BCBS of Texas and BCBS of Oklahoma, said it is also sending buyers who qualify for subsidies to the exchange, while those who do not qualify for subsidies have been buying off exchange plans more often.
"I'm very hopeful that individuals will come back and purchase the product," said Kurt Kossen, vice president of retail at parent company Health Care Service Corp, referring to customers who get information about a plan but do not buy it on the spot.
The move off exchanges is another way in which the Healthcare.gov problems may jeopardize the administration's efforts to sign up as many as 7 million Americans for coverage on the exchanges in their first year, including an estimated 2.7 million young and healthy members needed to make the system work financially.
The administration and the contractors it has hired say they are working around the clock to fix the problems. The government said on Thursday that about 700,000 applications have been submitted so far for coverage through Healthcare.gov and 14 insurance exchanges run by states.
The loss of potential customers could become more critical if the federal exchange is not fixed in time for an expected influx of enrollments by December 15, the last day to sign up and have benefits available on January 1.
Dan Mendelson, Chief Executive Officer at Avalere Health, which has been tracking the exchanges closely, said although he expects the Healthcare.gov problems to be solved, "There is a void right now and the void is being filled in many cases by insurers engaging directly with patients."
He said that "ultimately there will be a modest uptick in the off-exchange products as a result of this."
WHITE HOUSE PROMISES FIX
White House officials on Wednesday met with chief executives of 12 leading insurance companies, including Aetna Inc, Humana Inc and WellPoint Inc. The administration promised to fix problems with enrollment data sent to the health plans and address issues that have prevented insurers from directly enrolling consumers who are eligible for subsidies.
For some small insurers selling only on the exchange, the technology issues have affected all of their business. Community First Health Plans in San Antonio, Texas said that it was still experiencing technical problems and that the volume of sales was small. Community Health Choice in Houston, Texas said sales from the federal exchange had been slow.
"I see that every day the system is getting a little bit easier," said Daisy Morales, vice president of marketing and outreach.
Some insurers are selling 2013 plans that extend into 2014 and do not have all the benefits required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly called "Obamacare," making them less costly.
As a result, a shift to off-exchange products could signal that more healthy consumers will not be part of the Obamacare exchanges.
In the first year of the exchanges, insurers are reimbursed by the Obamacare risk adjustment program if they enroll very sick people. The more people in the pool, the lower the risk, and in the health insurance market, lower risk has meant more competition and lower premium prices.
"I can't give you a magic number, but insurers need a big enough pool of risk," said Jay Angoff, a former official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who now works as a lawyer at Mehri & Skalet in Washington DC.
Jefferies & Co analyst David Windley said that a weaker enrollment in Obamacare exchanges, with a final tally of a few million consumers, could mean the risk pool has a higher concentration of sick consumers.
It would mean "that the healthy ones tried and gave up (on enrollment) and the sick ones were the persistent ones that actually got through the process," Windley said.
In 2014, risk adjustment payments would help cover any hit that insurers take because of the sicker population. After that, it could mean higher premiums and therefore more government spending per person on subsidies.
WellPoint Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt said in an interview that the company, which has the largest presence on exchanges among health insurers, is selling both exchange-based products and off-exchange products from its websites. It sends people eligible for subsidies to Healthcare.gov.
"It messes the timing up a little, just because those off exchange can get in a little bit sooner," DeVeydt said. "It doesn't change the outlook. None of these policies start until January 1 anyway."
At the same time, WellPoint on Wednesday told investors it would not yet give a forecast for 2014 financial results due to uncertainty over how the Obamacare exchanges will work next year.
(Additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Grant McCool)
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2013 iPad buyers guide: How to choose the perfect 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB iPad Air or Retina iPad mini for you!
Apple offers four different storage sized options for the new iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, ranging from a paltry 16GB to an enormous 128GB - literally 8 times the capacity! Every step up in capacity, however, comes with a matching $100 step up in price. That might seem like a pretty straightforward bit of math, but it really isn't! Figuring out how much storage you really need, and how much you can afford is really important. It's the difference between a great experience and a lot of frustration. So, here's the deal!
iPad price points, like all of Apple's iOS device price points, are based on storage size. While it may seem like the price per gigabyte gets cheaper once you start going up, that's not always the case. You can see the U.S. prices above.
At first glance it might look like the 128GB iPad Air and 128GB Retina iPad mini offer eight times (8x) the storage of the 16GB models for less than twice the price - $499 vs. $799 for the iPad Air, $399 vs. $699 for the Retina iPad mini. Typically, however, the 16GB model has the lowest margins for Apple, and as you step up in storage, they step up in profitability. Think of it this way, going from 16GB to 32GB costs you $100. Go look at the cost of a 16GB SD card and you'll see how much more you're paying for that bump. Now, the $300 premium for an additional 112GB of i storage is more interesting, but is it $300 more interesting? (Hey, that's why Apple has over $100 billion in the bank!) Here's how the cost per gigabyte breaks down for both the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, Wi-Fi versions.
So, while the higher-end iPads make Apple the most money, they also cost you the least per gigabyte of storage. But how much do you really need, and where do you need it?
Apple's iCloud gives you free, unlimited storage for all your iTunes stuff. That includes iBooks, music, movies, TV shows, and apps, as well as 30 days or 1000 Photo Stream photos. You also get 5GB of additional storage for backups, data, etc. In many countries, you can use iTunes in the Cloud to download your media only when, and as needed. You can even purchase more iCloud storage for the following yearly fees:
Beyond iCloud, there are also other options like Dropbox, Box.net, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive, and more. All of these cloud storage services might make the 16GB iPad all the more tempting. You might think iCloud can let you keep most of your apps and media nearline, and re-download them only when you need to, so they don't take up precious storage on your device. You might also think Dropbox can let you keep documents and photos similarly available just-in-time rather than all-the-time.
It's not a crazy idea but it's important to remember that online/nearline storage isn't always as available, fast, or convenient as onboard storage. For starters, you can't really play a movie from iCloud, you have to download it before hand watch it, which means it takes a lot of time and you have to have enough space available on your iPhone to handle the download. If you want to watch a lot of movies, you may have to watch, delete, watch, delete, over and over again. Annoying. The same goes for any large download - like 1GB+ games! - or many small downloads, like podcasts and music.
So cloud storage means you can get away with managing more content on your device than you could otherwise, but it also means you still want to have enough local storage for what you need, when you need it.
The iPad Air and Retina iPad mini can both take 5 megapixel photos and shoot 1080p video at 30fps. Those can be some big files. About an hour of 1080p video can take up roughly 10GB of storage. 16GB doesn't seem so roomy now, does it?
Is the iPad going to be your primary camera? If so, running out of space all the time can be very annoying, and it's a huge pain in the butt to have to go through and figure out which memories and special moments you have to delete in order to capture more. So if you're really into the camera, 16GB might not work.
Apps and especially games can also take up a lot of space on your iPad. It's not uncommon for some console-quality games to be well over 1GB in size these days. Even basic apps might include interface assets for iPhone and iPad, standard and Retina, (and now call up frameworks that might be 32- and 64-bits!). Those are some super-fat binaries!
iTunes movies can be 1-3GB in size for SD depending on the length. If you prefer watching HD, they can be 3-6GB. iTunes TV shows can be a quarter to half the size of movies, but more than make up for it by the number of episodes typically available. If you get your movies and TV shows from somewhere other than iTunes, you're still looking at about 400MB an hour for SD and over 1GB (sometimes way over) an hour for HD. Music files are generally quite small but can add up as well, especially if you have lots and lots of albums you want to keep with you everywhere. Even with something like iTunes Match or a similar music locker service, or a streaming service, you need local storage for offline playback. Again, it all adds up.
If you don't use a lot of apps, if you don't want to have a lot of movies and TV shows, or a huge amount of music, if you don't intend to shoot and keep very much 8mp photos or 1080p video on your iPad, you'll probably be okay with 16GB.
Some people like to keep their iPads light and do all their gaming and media on their traditional computers, and some people just don't do a lot with their iPads period. If that's you, you can save yourself some cash and get a 16GB iPad Air or Retina iPad mini.
But we don't recommend it.
If the iPad is your primary computing device, if you play games on it and watch movies and TV shows on it, if you have a decent-sized music collection you want to keep with you, and if you shoot an average amount of photos and videos, 32GB is your sweet spot.
Some people like to have one device that, while it doesn't do everything all the time, it's capable enough to do most things most of the time. If you do a fair but not overwhelming amount of stuff on your iPad Air or Retina iPad mini, you're better off going for 32GB.
If you're a power user who wants to keep as much as possible for as long as possible, if you have a large amount of apps and games, TV shows and movies, and a huge music collection you simply have to have with you all the time, or you shoot photos and video almost non stop and don't want to have to bother transferring it all the time 64GB is a reasonable option.
Some people really do want their iPad to do everything, all of the time, and never (or rarely) have to worry about running out of space. For most people, 64GB will do that, and more.
Who're we kidding? If you want 128GB, you already know it. You're an audiophile who wants to keep absolutely everything, you're a video collector who wants to travel with enough entertainment to last around the world and back, you're a gamer who wants every single game all in one place - you're an alpha geek. And for you, 128GB is already on order.
For the person who wants everything - and by everything I mean everything - only 128GB will do.
Most places have return policies, so make sure, as soon as possible, you put your new iPad through realistic paces. Load up all the apps and games you want with you, load up your movies and TV shows, go out and take some photos and shoot some video. Give it a complete and thorough workout and see. If it feels like you got too much storage, say 64GB and you haven't even gone past 2GB, or if you got too little, say you're already at 63GB of 64GB, then take your iPad back and exchange it for one that better suits your needs.
If you come to this realization too late, after the exchange period is over, remember you can buy additional iCloud storage, or look at other options like Dropbox which will let you keep your stuff available online and potentially free up some much needed space on your iPad.
If you're still not sure about 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB, jump into our iPad discussion forums and the best community in mobile will happily help you out. Once you've decided, let me know - which iPhone, and which size, did you go with and why?
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/MAPdZ8jxnpw/story01.htmWhen envisioning a gleaming, medically enhanced future in which things like implant technology, super-personalized medicine, and organ regeneration enable humans to radically extend their lifespans, futurists sometimes forget that the human family also tends to change with time. In a world where people rise each day to spit into a bucket and send their bio-readings to a Google Medicine cloud that records and monitors their daily measurements, it would be a mistake to think the identity of the person spitting in the bucket beside yours will never, ever, ever alter.
In fact, you might call this the "Jetson fallacy," in honor of the classic early-’60s cartoon whose writers envisioned a human space colony 100 years into the future (that is, the 2060s). Living as they did in a city endowed with flying-saucer cars, robot housekeepers, and elevated dwellings, the Jetsons nevertheless remained strangely Cleaver-like in roles and composition: a nuclear unit comprising two kids, a dog, a breadwinning husband—George—who went to work at Spacely Space Sprockets, and a homemaking wife, Jane, who sweetly snatched his wallet before zooming to the shopping mall. Creative as they were in imagining the landscape of the future, the writers were oblivious to the tectonic changes—divorce, the sexual revolution, feminism, the entry of women into the workforce—poised to explode the American family.
With that cautionary tale in mind, I'd propose some additions to the compelling "longevity scenarios" that Joel Garreau discussed in Future Tense as a way of sketching out possible outcomes for what human life might be like in an age of 100-plus lifespans. In the four scenarios that Garreau persuasively offers, it is 2030 and a hypothetical couple, John and Ann Grant, parents of two adult children, are entering their 80s. Depending on the rate at which medical science has moved forward—and the ability of public policy to make these technologies available—the Grants A) are not in much better shape than generations before them; B) can expect to live several more decades, but doddering and frail; C) feel healthier and fit than ever, with 60 or 70 more great years ahead of them; or D) find themselves in a wonderfully altered world where their children can plausibly expect something like immortality. In all four scenarios, John and Ann, bless them, remain married.
But we might also consider scenario E, in which John and Ann Grant take a hard look at each other after Sarah and Emily leave home for college and decide that while they’ve had a great run, life is long—very, very, very long—and they’d like to explore other options. They divorce; John marries a woman 20 years younger, ensuring he will have a partner who can look after his well-being, taking him to all his body-part-replacement appointments as he moves toward his first centennial. Ann finds herself living among exponentially more single women, her social life confined to playing online poker with other divorcees and widows, because humanity persists in thinking women should only partner with men their age or older, even as those men have taken younger second or third or fourth wives. In scenario F, our thinking changes and we decide that women, like men, should be able to dip down and date younger partners, so Ann, at 120, takes a well-sculpted 70-year-old boyfriend, but prudently decides to live with rather than marry him.
Whatever pair-bonding opportunities we as a culture allow Ann, we of course will not think it strange if John and his new wife have a child or two to seal their new alliance, meaning Emily and Sarah accrue half siblings who are significantly younger than they are.
In this image made from video provided by theOct26thDriving campaign, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Saudi woman drives a vehicle in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. A Saudi woman said she got behind the wheel Saturday and drove to the grocery store without being stopped or harassed by police, kicking off a campaign protesting the ban on women driving in the ultraconservative kingdom. (AP Photo)
In this image made from video provided by theOct26thDriving campaign, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Saudi woman drives a vehicle in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. A Saudi woman said she got behind the wheel Saturday and drove to the grocery store without being stopped or harassed by police, kicking off a campaign protesting the ban on women driving in the ultraconservative kingdom. (AP Photo)
In this image made from video provided by theOct26thDriving campaign, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a Saudi woman drives a vehicle in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. A Saudi woman said she got behind the wheel Saturday and drove to the grocery store without being stopped or harassed by police, kicking off a campaign protesting the ban on women driving in the ultraconservative kingdom. (AP Photo)
FILE - In this Friday, June 17, 2011 file image made from video released by Change.org, a Saudi Arabian woman drives a car as part of a campaign to defy Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It’s been a little more than two years since the last time women in Saudi Arabia campaigned for the right to drive. Since then, the monarchy has made incremental but key reforms, and activists hope that has readied the nation for greater change as they call for women to get behind the wheel in a new campaign Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. Ultraconservatives are pushing back with protests, threats and even a cleric’s warning that driving a car damages a woman’s ovaries.(AP Photo/Change.org, File)
FILE - In thos Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 file photo, a Saudi woman walks in the desert, in Thumama, Saudi Arabia. It’s been a little more than two years since the last time women in Saudi Arabia campaigned for the right to drive. Since then, the monarchy has made incremental but key reforms, and activists hope that has readied the nation for greater change as they call for women to get behind the wheel in a new campaign Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. Ultraconservatives are pushing back with protests, threats and even a cleric’s warning that driving a car damages a woman’s ovaries. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — More than 60 women across Saudi Arabia claimed they drove cars Saturday in defiance of a ban keeping them from getting behind the wheel, facing little protest by police in their push for easing restrictions on women in the kingdom.
The campaign's message is that driving should be a woman's choice. The struggle is rooted in the kingdom's hard-line interpretation of Islam known as Wahabbism, with critics warning that women driving could unravel the very fabric of Saudi society.
Though no laws ban women from driving in Saudi Arabia, authorities do not issue them licenses. Women who drove on Saturday had driver's licenses from abroad, activists said.
Activist Aziza Youssef, a professor at King Saud University, and another activist said protest organizers received 13 videos and about 50 phone messages from women showing or claiming they had driven. She said they have no way to verify the messages.
May Al Sawyan, a 32-year-old mother of two and an economic researcher, told The Associated Press that she drove from her home in Riyadh to the grocery store and back. Activists uploaded a four-minute video of her driving to the campaign's YouTube account.
Al Sawyan said she was prepared to be jailed if caught by authorities. She said she was far enough from a police car that she was not spotted.
"I just took a small loop," she said. "I didn't drive for a long way, but it was fine."
Al Sawyan's husband and family waited at home and called her nervously when she arrived at the store to check on her, she said. She drove with a local female television reporter in the car. They were both without male relatives in the vehicle, which in itself defies the country's strict norms requiring women to have a male relative in public.
"I am very happy and proud that there was no reaction against me," Al Sawyan said.
It is not clear if police turned a blind eye to women driving or simply did not see the scattered, quick spins around towns. An AP journalist in Riyadh said there were no roadblocks or checkpoints set up to watch for female drivers. He saw only a few law enforcement vehicles on the road.
A security official said authorities did not arrest or fine any female drivers on Saturday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Ahead of the protest, authorities offered mixed messages, perhaps cautious not to push too hard against the kingdom's religious establishment. Hard-line clerics say women driving will lead to "licentiousness." A prominent cleric also caused a stir when he said that medical studies show driving a car harms a woman's ovaries.
The ministry that oversees the police warned that violators who "disturb public peace" would be dealt with forcefully. The statement catered to conservatives who saw this as directed at women drivers, but was also interpreted by reformers to be directed at anyone who harasses women drivers.
"This is part of the politics," said Youssef, the activist and professor. "My analysis is that government is doing all this to protect ladies from the harassers."
Saturday's campaign is in stark contrast to the kingdom's first major driving protest in 1990, which saw 50 women arrested. They ultimately had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs.
In June 2011, about 40 women got behind the wheel in several cities in a protest sparked when a woman was arrested after posting a video of herself driving. Later another woman driver was arrested and sentenced to 10 lashes, but the king overturned the sentence.
King Abdullah gradually has introduced reforms since then. The reforms, which include allowing women to sit on the national advisory council and permitting women to vote and run in municipal elections, may have readied the deeply conservative nation for change.
But the stringent male guardian system has been left untouched. It requires women to obtain permission from a male relative to travel, get married, enroll in higher education or undergo surgery in some cases.
Women who complain about not having male relatives to drive them places or money to spend on a driver are told by many Saudi clerics to call for better public transportation systems, not a driver's license.
Karen Elliott House, the author of "On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines," has interviewed many key members of the kingdom's very private royal family and says the monarchy is trying to slowly embrace more openness.
"They try to constantly, like a tight rope walker, to balance by tilting first toward the most rigid clerics and then toward modernizers to keep a balance in the kingdom," House said.
In the days leading up to the campaign, some hard-liners called for women drivers to be harassed. Ultraconservative clerics and top religious scholars, angry that the government is not cracking down harder, protested earlier in the week.
Youssef said she and four other prominent women activists received phone calls from a top official with close links to Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, urging them not to drive on Saturday. She also said that "two suspicious cars" were following her all day.
Despite the obstacles, Youssef said only one woman reported being pulled over by police Saturday. The woman was asked to sign a statement promising not to drive again and her husband took over the steering wheel, she said.
"We will continue driving and posting videos," Youssef said. "The whole thing is raising awareness and making people get used to us driving as normal."
___
Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-26-Saudi-Women%20Driving/id-90972fbd023c4790a31f1fd2ecb725ba
