Everyone's favorite 6-second video making app Vine is receiving an update today that helps you create even better videos. The first new feature is called "Sessions," and its basically a drafts folder for videos. You can take portions or complete Vines, and save them for later, up to 10 at a time. You can access these Sessions with a tap on an icon in the bottom right of your capture window.
Next up is "Time Travel," a new way to edit the Vine you're currently working on. At any time in your creative process, you can tap the green progress bar and go back through your clips to rearrange them. While you may not use this often for basic editing, it'll be useful if you need to re-shoot any portion of a scene and put it in its proper place.
You can grab the latest version of Vine from the Play Store link at the top of this post.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed in light trading on Monday following a record closing high by the S&P 500 on Friday, as a week filled with economic data and key corporate earnings gets under way.
The S&P 500 closed at a record high to cap its biggest weekly gain in three months on stronger-than-expected earnings from companies, including Google and Morgan Stanley.
Shares of Dow component McDonald's fell 1.9 percent in light premarket trading after posting earnings. Other companies expected to report results on Monday include Netflix and Texas Instruments .
"With no fresh themes emerging this morning, market participants will continue to look towards earnings for direction - and earnings have delivered," said Andre Bakhos, managing director at Janlyn Capital LLC in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
"It will primarily be an earnings and economic data driven market," he said.
The National Association of Realtors releases existing-home sales for September at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 5.30 million units at an annual rate versus 5.48 million in August.
S&P 500 futures rose a point and were little changed in terms of fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 3 points and Nasdaq 100 futures added 6 points.
Financial stocks could be in focus after JPMorgan Chase & Co reached a tentative $13 billion deal with the U.S. government to settle investigations into bad mortgage loans sold to investors by JPMorgan and the banks it bought during the financial crisis.
"A settlement of this size brings closure for many and it allows them to put the episode behind," Bakhos said.
Shares of Tellabs Inc rose 5.5 percent in premarket trading after the network services provider agreed to be bought by Marlin Equity Partners for $891 million.
Japan's exports rose but were well short of expectations in September, a sign that slowing demand in Asia is taking the shine off Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's stimulus policies and clouding the outlook for a budding economic recovery.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Kenneth Barry)
Contact: Bernard McCoy bmccoy2@unl.edu 402-472-3047 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
More than 90 percent admit they play with their digital devices in class
The typical college student plays with his or her digital device an average of 11 times a day while in class, according to a new study by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln associate professor.
More than 80 percent admit that their use of smart phones, tablets and laptops can interfere with their learning. More than a fourth say their grades suffer as a result.
Barney McCoy, an associate professor of broadcasting, embarked upon his study after launching his teaching career seven years ago and noticing the instructional challenges presented by students' digital devices.
From the front of his classroom on multimedia, he often saw the smart phones creeping out.
The view from the back of a classroom while a colleague taught Mass Media Principles was equally telling.
"They've got their laptops open, but they're not always taking notes," McCoy said. "Some might have two screens open -- Facebook and their notes."
Rather than rely on anecdotal evidence, McCoy decided to try to quantify how often college students tune out their instructors in favor of tweets and texts. During fall 2012, he surveyed 777 students at six universities in five states about their classroom use of digital devices for non-instructional purposes. He also asked the students how often they are distracted by others using digital devices and for their perspective on how digital devices should be policed.
"I don't think students necessarily think it's problematic," McCoy said. "They think it's part of their lives."
The students, from UNL and the University of Nebraska at Omaha in Nebraska, Morningside College in Iowa, the University of North Carolina, the University of Kansas and the University of Mississippi, were recruited for the computer survey by classroom instructors via email and personal contact. Respondents were not asked to reveal their name or institution, though colleges were identified through Internet Protocol addresses associated with the survey responses.
Here's how often respondents said they used their digital devices for non-classroom purposes during a typical day (percentages equal more than 100 percent because of rounding):
1 to 3 times per day: 35 percent
4 to 10 times per day: 27 percent
11 to 30 times per day: 16 percent
More than 30 times per day: 15 percent
Never: less than 8 percent.
Nearly 86 percent said they were texting, 68 percent reported they were checking email, 66 percent said they using social networks, 38 percent said they were surfing the Web and 8 percent said they were playing a game.
McCoy said he was surprised by one response: 79 percent of the students said they used their digital device to check the time.
"That's a generational thing to me -- a lot of young people don't wear watches," he said.
The top advantages of using digital devices for non-class purposes, according to students, are staying connected (70 percent), fighting boredom (55 percent) and doing related classwork (49 percent). The most commonly cited disadvantages were that they don't pay attention (90 percent), miss instruction (80 percent), or get called out by their instructor (32 percent). More than a fourth said they lose grade points because of their digital habits.
However, students downplayed the distraction caused by digital devices. Fewer than 5 percent considered it a "big" or "very big" distraction when classmates used digital devices and fewer than 5 percent considered their own use of a digital device to be a "big" or "very big" distraction. However, more than half the students said they were "a little" distracted when other students pulled out their devices and nearly 46 percent said they were "a little" distracted by their own use of digital devices.
Less than 17 percent said the use of digital devices was not a distraction.
Students do not want to leave their smartphones at home, however. More than 91 percent said they opposed a classroom ban on digital devices. Their preferred policy (72 percent) for dealing with digital distraction is for the instructor to speak to the offender. They also preferred a first-offense warning, followed by penalties (65 percent) for those caught using devices for non-classroom purposes.
McCoy said digital distraction is a challenge with which instructors will continue to wrestle. A 2012 study showed that two-thirds of students age 18-29 own a smartphone, which gives them mobile access to the Internet as well as texting and email capabilities. A 2013 study by Experian Marketing Services showed that 18- to 24-year-olds send and receive an average of 3,853 text messages per month.
"It's become automatic behavior on the part of so many people -- they do it without even thinking about it," McCoy said.
He said he asks students to be aware that using their devices can distract others and to step outside the room if it's a true emergency and they need to be connected. He said he limits the length of his lectures and gives students periodic breaks so they can update Facebook or send a tweet. He said he also tries to get them to use their phones as part of their classroom activities -- asking them to look up information, for example.
"I can guarantee you even when I do those things, it's still not going to keep students from having a text conversation," he said. "They'll multi-task while they're doing it."
###
McCoy's study was published online last week in the Journal of Media Education and is available at http://go.unl.edu/fbov.
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Study: Students text, a lot, during class
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
23-Oct-2013
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Contact: Bernard McCoy bmccoy2@unl.edu 402-472-3047 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
More than 90 percent admit they play with their digital devices in class
The typical college student plays with his or her digital device an average of 11 times a day while in class, according to a new study by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln associate professor.
More than 80 percent admit that their use of smart phones, tablets and laptops can interfere with their learning. More than a fourth say their grades suffer as a result.
Barney McCoy, an associate professor of broadcasting, embarked upon his study after launching his teaching career seven years ago and noticing the instructional challenges presented by students' digital devices.
From the front of his classroom on multimedia, he often saw the smart phones creeping out.
The view from the back of a classroom while a colleague taught Mass Media Principles was equally telling.
"They've got their laptops open, but they're not always taking notes," McCoy said. "Some might have two screens open -- Facebook and their notes."
Rather than rely on anecdotal evidence, McCoy decided to try to quantify how often college students tune out their instructors in favor of tweets and texts. During fall 2012, he surveyed 777 students at six universities in five states about their classroom use of digital devices for non-instructional purposes. He also asked the students how often they are distracted by others using digital devices and for their perspective on how digital devices should be policed.
"I don't think students necessarily think it's problematic," McCoy said. "They think it's part of their lives."
The students, from UNL and the University of Nebraska at Omaha in Nebraska, Morningside College in Iowa, the University of North Carolina, the University of Kansas and the University of Mississippi, were recruited for the computer survey by classroom instructors via email and personal contact. Respondents were not asked to reveal their name or institution, though colleges were identified through Internet Protocol addresses associated with the survey responses.
Here's how often respondents said they used their digital devices for non-classroom purposes during a typical day (percentages equal more than 100 percent because of rounding):
1 to 3 times per day: 35 percent
4 to 10 times per day: 27 percent
11 to 30 times per day: 16 percent
More than 30 times per day: 15 percent
Never: less than 8 percent.
Nearly 86 percent said they were texting, 68 percent reported they were checking email, 66 percent said they using social networks, 38 percent said they were surfing the Web and 8 percent said they were playing a game.
McCoy said he was surprised by one response: 79 percent of the students said they used their digital device to check the time.
"That's a generational thing to me -- a lot of young people don't wear watches," he said.
The top advantages of using digital devices for non-class purposes, according to students, are staying connected (70 percent), fighting boredom (55 percent) and doing related classwork (49 percent). The most commonly cited disadvantages were that they don't pay attention (90 percent), miss instruction (80 percent), or get called out by their instructor (32 percent). More than a fourth said they lose grade points because of their digital habits.
However, students downplayed the distraction caused by digital devices. Fewer than 5 percent considered it a "big" or "very big" distraction when classmates used digital devices and fewer than 5 percent considered their own use of a digital device to be a "big" or "very big" distraction. However, more than half the students said they were "a little" distracted when other students pulled out their devices and nearly 46 percent said they were "a little" distracted by their own use of digital devices.
Less than 17 percent said the use of digital devices was not a distraction.
Students do not want to leave their smartphones at home, however. More than 91 percent said they opposed a classroom ban on digital devices. Their preferred policy (72 percent) for dealing with digital distraction is for the instructor to speak to the offender. They also preferred a first-offense warning, followed by penalties (65 percent) for those caught using devices for non-classroom purposes.
McCoy said digital distraction is a challenge with which instructors will continue to wrestle. A 2012 study showed that two-thirds of students age 18-29 own a smartphone, which gives them mobile access to the Internet as well as texting and email capabilities. A 2013 study by Experian Marketing Services showed that 18- to 24-year-olds send and receive an average of 3,853 text messages per month.
"It's become automatic behavior on the part of so many people -- they do it without even thinking about it," McCoy said.
He said he asks students to be aware that using their devices can distract others and to step outside the room if it's a true emergency and they need to be connected. He said he limits the length of his lectures and gives students periodic breaks so they can update Facebook or send a tweet. He said he also tries to get them to use their phones as part of their classroom activities -- asking them to look up information, for example.
"I can guarantee you even when I do those things, it's still not going to keep students from having a text conversation," he said. "They'll multi-task while they're doing it."
###
McCoy's study was published online last week in the Journal of Media Education and is available at http://go.unl.edu/fbov.
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| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]New Jersey became the 14th state to allow same-sex marriage Monday when gay couples began marrying just after midnight. A state judge forced the state to recognize same-sex marriages. Initially, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie appealed that ruling. But he dropped that appeal Monday, saying the New Jersey Supreme Court had already made clear how it would rule.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NprProgramsATC/~3/RwPe3Ux1nCo/story.php Similar Articles: Kwame KilpatrickKrokodilchrissy teigenJulie ChenChristopher Lane
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Activist investor Carl Icahn may be putting more pressure on Apple CEO Tim Cook to get more aggressive about boosting the iPhone maker's stock price.
Icahn posted on his Twitter account Wednesday that he had sent Cook a letter in the afternoon. He said he would share the letter Thursday on a new website called "Shareholders' Square Table."
The missive follows up on a Sept. 30 dinner with Cook that Icahn hosted at his New York apartment. During that get-together, Icahn said he lobbied Cook to spend $150 billion buying back Apple Inc.'s own stock. That's more than double the amount that the Cupertino, Calif., company has committed to spend.
Icahn, whose wealth is estimated at $20 billion by Forbes magazine, has said his fund has invested about $2 billion in Apple. At that amount, Icahn would own less than a 1 percent stake in Apple.
Icahn, 77, has a long history of buying significant stakes in companies with a slumping stock price and then pressing the corporate leaders to pursue plans that he thinks would make the shares more valuable.
While Apple's market value of about $477 billion is more than any other publicly traded company, its stock prices has fallen about 25 percent from a peak 13 months ago. Investors have been worried about tougher competition facing Apple in the smartphone and table market, as well as the lack of a breakthrough product since the death of its chief visionary, Steve Jobs, two years ago. Those worries didn't dissipate with unveiling of Apple's latest iPads on Tuesday.
Apple's stock rose $5.09 Wednesday to close at $524.96.
Icahn believes Apple could lift its stock by taking advantage of low interest rates to borrow money to finance its proposed stock buybacks. The buybacks would fuel demand for Apple's stock and increase the company's earnings per share by reducing the amount of stock. Higher earnings per share usually lift a company's stock price.
Neither Apple nor Icahn responded to requests for comment on Wednesday.
In some instances, Icahn has threatened to try to oust corporate boards that don't follow his wishes. Icahn hasn't yet said whether he might pursue a shake-up at Apple if the company rebuffs him.
Icahn sent his letter to Cook the day after disclosing he had sold more than half his stake in one of his biggest successes, an investment in Internet movie service Netflix Inc.
In that instance, Icahn did little but give Netflix CEO Reed Hastings a vote of confidence at a time when the company had fallen out of favor. After accumulating a nearly 10 percent stake in Netflix while the stock was trading below $60 last year, Icahn reaped a pre-tax gain of nearly $800 million by selling 3 million shares at prices ranging from $304.23 to $341.44 earlier this month.
Icahn still owns nearly 2.7 million Netflix shares, leaving him with a 4.5 percent stake in the Los Gatos, Calif., company.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Malaysian university is facing public criticism for awarding an honorary doctorate in economics to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The privately run HELP University said a "simple ceremony" to mark the conferment was held in early October at North Korea's embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
The event initially went unnoticed in this Southeast Asian nation but was reported briefly by North Korea's official news agency, KCNA. It attracted criticism on social networks in Malaysia this week after the U.S.-based Foreign Policy magazine posted a blog article that expressed surprise about the decision.
The university's president, Paul Chan, said in an undated statement released this week that the decision was about "building a bridge to reach the people."
Chan's office said he was not available for further comments Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House national security official was fired after it was discovered that he was behind an anonymous Twitter account that criticized the Obama administration.
Jofi Joseph was nonproliferation director on the National Security Council and was involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran.
His postings on the @NatSecWonk account, which no longer is available on Twitter, often took shots at administration policy and figures, including Secretary of State John Kerry, and members of Congress.
One tweet said: "More people should be asking why John Kerry installed two former aides, both with ZERO foreign policy experience, into top posts at State."
Another tweet said: "That Obama only called Kerry/Hagel AFTER he made decision with his WH aides on going to Hill underscores how all foreign policy is WH-based." The post referred to Obama's surprise decision in late August to seek congressional authorization for military strikes against Syria as punishment for a chemical weapons attack in August.
Joseph could not be reached Wednesday for comment. No one answered the telephone at a number believed to be his.
In a statement to Politico, Joseph said he took "complete responsibility" for the Twitter feed, saying it started as a "parody account." He apologized to those he insulted.
A White House official confirmed that Joseph no longer works for the administration, but declined further comment on personnel matters. It was not immediately clear how officials determined that Joseph was behind the Twitter account.
Joseph began working at the State Department in 2009. Deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said he was assigned to the National Security Council in 2011 and became an NSC employee last August.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday he had no additional information to provide.
Carney said White House staffers cannot access social media sites like Twitter from the White House unless they have an official, authorized account. Carney and many other senior administration officials have official Twitter accounts and they often send several messages a day.
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