New simple-to-use, low-cost smart phones

New simple-to-use, low-cost smart phones - Given the dazzle of the Galaxies, Droids, and other star smart phones, it's easy to overlook the many less expensive, less promoted phones on the market.

Some new models in our latest phone ratings are easy to use, easy on the wallet, and even boast a few cool features you won't find on their richer cousins.

Here's a rundown:

Jitterbug Touch (Photo: Kyocera)

Samsung ATIV Odyssey. ($50)

Samsung's first Windows Phone is among several Windows 8 models we've just added to our phone ratings. While the Odyssey lacks a high-resolution display, NFC-managed file sharing, a quad-core processor, and other features that define today's marquee phones, its hardware is more than adequate. It also comes with a decent number of useful apps, and is one of the few Verizon phones that will work on foreign GSM networks. That's a lot of phone for $50 with a two-year contract.

Pantech Discover. ($50)

This Android smart phone, $50 from AT&T, is brimming with top-shelf features, including a large, brilliant 4.8-inch, high-definition display, and dual side-firing speakers for stereo sound without headphones. There's also a 12.6-megapixel camera with time-lapse video recording and a still camera that lets you choose your subjects' best facial expressions from several different photos and "glue" them on one perfect photo.

The Discover also has an innovative and intuitive interface. For example, flicking your finger upward from the bottom of the screen summons a tray of convenient shortcuts for adding apps, widgets, changing wallpaper, and accessing phone settings. And for novices or "cognitively challenged" users, the Discover has an Easy Experience interface that clears desktop clutter to put core functions such as phone, contacts, messages, and camera front and center. It's also easy to increase the size fonts and app icons, and menus present a shorter list of options to simplify use.

Kyocera Jitterbug Touch. ($150)

If only this model, the first smart phone from a carrier aimed at people who find today's cell phones "often too complicated to use," was as successful at simplicity as the Pantech. Costing $150 from Great Call without a contract, this Jitterbug is a pudgy model that measures 4.1 inches x 2.3 inches x 0.7 inches and has a 3-inch touch screen that makes everything displayed on it a tad small for any user, let alone one who finds regular screens "difficult to see," though Great Call promises that its phones address this issue.

It doesn't help that text and images aren't very crisp because the display's resolution is relatively low. And the phone's touch interface is simple, but it buries core features such as phone, camera, photo gallery, and messaging under an Apps tab. On the plus side, there is a slide-out keyboard, with keys that are clearly labeled, logically laid out, and well spaced.

Samsung Galaxy Stratosphere II. ($30)

If it's a keyboard you want, a better choice is this Android model from Verizon—which costs even less, at $30 with a two-year contract from Verizon.

As with the original Stratosphere, the keyboard on this model is one of the best we've seen. It's clearly labeled, logically laid out, well spaced, and features five rows—a rarity among phones—with dedicated buttons for numbers across the top row, directional buttons, and buttons for search, accessing the Web, and messaging. Like its predecessor, it has a 4-inch touch-screen display, but it adds more internal memory, a higher camera recording resolution, NFC, and international GSM ability. ( Consumer Reports )

READ MORE - New simple-to-use, low-cost smart phones

Samsung Readies Tizen, a New Mobile Competitor to Google Android and Apple iOS

Samsung Readies Tizen, a New Mobile Competitor to Google Android and Apple iOS - When Samsung hinted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) a few months ago that there is more to the world of smartphones and tablets than Apple's iOS, it was also referring to Google's Android operating system, which runs on Samsung's most popular devices. Now, just days after introducing its newest marquee Android smartphone--the Galaxy S4--Samsung says it will debut a new handset later this year that uses Tizen, an operating system the company has been developing with chip-maker Intel.

Such a move would both support and contradict statements that Samsung Chief Product Officer Kevin Packingham made during a CES panel discussion in January.

Packingham acknowledged that the "jury's still out on how the [mobile operating system] war will play out" and suggested that, given Microsoft's investment in Windows 8, that operating system should not be ruled out as a competitor to iOS or Android. Packingham also said he is often asked why Samsung doesn't make its own mobile operating system. He responded that app developers must, out of economic necessity, write software for the most popular operating systems--typically iOS and Android--while relegating other platforms to the back burner. Besides, he added, "[We] have a good relationship with Google, so [there's] no need to."

Yet Samsung and Intel have spearheaded the development of Tizen--an open-source operating system for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices--since September 2011. And Samsung's newest phone--as yet unnamed--would be the first on the market to use Tizen, Bloomberg reported last week. The world's largest mobile phone-maker, Samsung had previously mentioned Tizen as a possible alternative to Android for lower-end devices, "so the news that it will be also mixed with the latest and the greatest of the device specs certainly warrants some attention," Aapo Markkanen, a senior analyst at ABI Research blogged last week.

Samsung appears to be decoupling itself from Android, despite the device-maker's reliance on Android's hundreds of thousands of apps to sell Samsung gadgets. "The Galaxy series couldn't fly with any other OS, especially given how little Samsung has invested in Windows Phone," Markkanen blogged. "All signs are pointing to Samsung trying to pull off a 'Great OS Escape' within the next year or two."

Android and iOS may be the dominant mobile operating systems today but the continued growth of smartphones and other wireless gadgets depends on new choices emerging, whether it's the emergence of Windows 8, a resurgence of BlackBerry's platform or some other option, said AT&T's Glenn Lurie, president of emerging enterprises and partnerships, during the same CES panel in which Packingham described Samsung's relationship with Google. "When the iPhone launched there wasn't any competition," but it soon lit a fire under Microsoft, Google and others to get into the market, he added.

Tizen's emergence may seem like a nonstarter right now, but it does shake up the established order in the smartphone market a bit. Android is open source as well, and most people choose mobile devices based on price, carrier service, the availability of apps and other features. The operating system seems almost incidental. If you want an iPhone, you're going to get iOS along with it. If you like non-Apple mobile phones, chances are they will come with some version of Android or perhaps Windows. Tizen's impact will likely first be felt in China, a country whose rift with Google has caused the company to scale back some of Android's features in that market, making it less appealing to handset-makers like Samsung, according Minyanville Media.

It will likely take five, even 10 years for mobile operating system competition to shake out, said Rajeev Chand, managing director and head of research for equity research firm Rutberg & Co., who moderated the CES panel. Although he didn't specifically mention Tizen, he did add, "I think there's a damned good chance that there will a third and fourth [mobile] operating system."

Galaxy S III image courtesy of Samsung ( Scientific American )

READ MORE - Samsung Readies Tizen, a New Mobile Competitor to Google Android and Apple iOS

How Facebook knew a man was gay before he came out

How Facebook knew a man was gay before he came out - Matt only "liked" two pages: One for a politician, and one for a local bar

If you pull back the blue banners and innocuous "like" buttons adorning the front-end of Facebook, you'll come face-to-face with a jaw-dropping trove of consumer data that contains a stupid-scary amount of information about you.

No one learned that lesson harder than a man who simply calls himself Matt. In an email to BuzzFeed, he tells a story about how Facebook's algorithms somehow figured out he was gay, despite Matt relaying his closely guarded secret to just one friend over the phone.

What did Facebook do, exactly? In his News Feed, Facebook targeted Matt with a suggested page for Rick Clemons, an author who describes himself as "the coming out coach."

What's weirder, though, is that Matt didn't leave any obvious clues about his hidden sexual preference. His only "liked" pages included a politician and a local bar he enjoyed drinking at. Naturally, Matt was more than a little creeped out. Here's what he wrote to BuzzFeed:

As many LGBT individuals know, for a time, the most closely held secret we have is our sexuality. Several nights ago, I texted a close and dear friend for advice on revealing such sensitive personal information. The next morning, I woke up to a "sponsored story" on my Facebook page that asked "Coming Out? Need help?" How did Facebook know such a specific ad would apply to my profile?

The answer may have had to do with his commenting history. Many websites use Facebook's API to power their comment sections. A quick investigation of Matt's Activity Log showed he had commented twice on a BuzzFeed article called "Ohio senator Rob Portman announces support for marriage equality."

Of course, that's just the part of the story we're privy to. (What other websites had he visited? Etc.) Like Matt, if most people knew the extent of Big Data's tab-keeping on would-be customers, they too would be mortified.

In the book The Power of Habit, author Charles Duhigg tells a story about a pregnant teenager who hadn't yet told her parents about her situation. One day, Target began mailing her coupons for diapers and cribs, determining she was due in August. Her parents caught on, and she was forced to tell them that, yes, she was with child. The retailer's sophisticated algorithms had apparently tattled on her based on what she was buying in the checkout line.

Scary? You bet. It should be noted, however, that Big Data isn't always so bad. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that researchers have successfully used Google, Bing, and Yahoo's internet search data to discover dangerous, unreported side effects of prescriptions drugs — information that may not have been revealed any other way.

The moral of the story, though, is that Facebook, Google, Target, and innumerable faceless corporations know a whole lot about you — whether you like it or not. Matt's story is unnerving, yes. And unless we all pack up and move to a deserted island somewhere, it most certainly won't be the last. ( The Week )

READ MORE - How Facebook knew a man was gay before he came out

Carnival ships out of service longer than expected

Carnival ships out of service longer than expected — The Carnival Triumph, which was crippled by an engine fire in the Gulf of Mexico last month leaving 4,200 people stranded for five days, will be out of service longer than initially expected, Carnival Cruise Lines announced Tuesday.

The ship is now set to return to service June 3, meaning an additional 10 cruises will be canceled. Guests on the affected voyages will receive a full refund, reimbursement for non-refundable transportation costs and a 25 percent discount on a future four- to five-day cruise.

Also, the Carnival Sunshine, which is undergoing a scheduled full-ship makeover, will return to service May 5, following the cancellation of two European cruises.

The cruise line is making significant investments to enhance its backup systems and the scope of hotel services that can run on emergency power, and further improve each ship's fire prevention, detection and suppression systems.

"We sincerely regret canceling these cruises and disrupting our guests' vacation plans," Carnival president and CEO Gerry Cahill said in a release. "We are fully committed to applying the recommendations stemming from our fleet-wide review and to make whatever investments are needed despite the difficult decision to impact people's vacations."

Mike Driscoll, editor of Cruise Week, said Carnival is smart to take the extra time and make the necessary improvements, because it shows the company is taking the recent shipboard problems seriously.

"The cancellations are painful in the short-term, both to Carnival customers and Carnival Corp.'s bottom line, but a very shrewd maneuver in the long-term," Driscoll said. "Carnival is facing increasing scrutiny, not just from media, but from Congress, so they're acting quickly to forestall legislative maneuvers that might require them to make such moves anyway down the line. The view is that it's better to do it on your own, as opposed to having politicians require you to make changes."

Stewart Chiron, an industry expert known as "The Cruise Guy," said the fact that Carnival is making the additional redundancy and fire prevention upgrades to the Sunshine, which was already in dry-dock receiving a $150 million refit, demonstrates that Carnival means to make the improvements fleet-wide.

"This isn't going to take years of discussion and committee," Chiron said. "These changes are going to be implemented immediately, and these are the first two ships to get it. It's actually very encouraging."

In its earnings release last week, the Miami-based company said advance bookings for 2013 are behind the same point from a year ago. The company blamed Europe's economic problems for its inability to raise prices. North American prices are up slightly but those in Europe and Asia are lagging. Passengers in Europe are booking vacations much closer to the date of departure, Carnival said.

But vacationers have been wary about booking cruises ever since the Costa Concordia — also owned by Carnival — sank off the coast of Italy in January 2012. Passengers have returned to the seas, but many needed to be coaxed by deep discounts.

And the Triumph wasn't the only Carnival ship to experience problems this year. The company ended the voyage of the Carnival Dream last week after the ship's backup emergency diesel generator failed, causing problems with elevators and toilets. Instead of allowing the cruise ship to return to Florida, Carnival was forced to charter airplanes to fly home the ship's 4,300 passengers. The Dream's next trip, which was supposed to start Sunday, was canceled.

The company also said that another ship — the Legend — was having mechanical problems and skipped its stop at the Cayman Islands, heading straight to its final port in Tampa instead.

Carnival runs cruises under 10 brands including Holland America, Princess, Cunard and its namesake line. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Carnival ships out of service longer than expected

If a microorganism were found on Mars, would anyone care?

Life on Mars! Unless it's E.T., Who Cares? - If a microorganism were found on Mars, would anyone care?

NASA scientists announced on March 12 that the Red Planet could have supported ancient life — though they don't yet have evidence that it did. A sample of rock drilled by the Curiosity rover revealed conditions that could have supported ancient microbes at some point in the distant past.

The news of even potential life made headlines, and there's no doubt the discovery of actual microbial life on Mars would, too. But the impact of finding life on another world might not be as Earth-shattering as one might think, experts say. That's mainly because the life probably wouldn't be asking to be taken to our leader.

"People don't get excited about microorganisms," said Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

Life on Mars?

For scientists, Mars life would be a big deal, McKay told LiveScience. Even more paradigm-altering would be to find that life on Mars originated independently.

It's plausible that Mars and Earth exchanged material in their early days, and that life found on Mars could have arisen from the same source as life on Earth. Such a discovery would be intriguing, McKay said, but "not as profound as finding that there's life on Mars and finding that it represents a second genesis."

"If we find on Mars evidence for a second genesis, that changes everything," he said.

Life evolving twice in the same solar system would suggest that life is common throughout the universe, McKay explained. Such a discovery would be huge for biologists, who would suddenly have an entirely new type of biology to study.

McKay doesn't envision any major shifts in philosophy among the public in response to such a discovery, though. The discovery of microorganisms on another planet wouldn't necessarily spur the need to re-evaluate humanity's place in the universe, for example.

"I would put it along the lines of the discovery of the Higgs boson," McKay said, referring to the particle theorized to explain where other particles get their mass. "It would be that sort of level of event. It would be out in the public and people would be like, 'Oh, wow,' but mostly it would be something that scientists would get into."

Physicists announced last week they had confirmed the newfound particle discovered with experiments in the Large Hadron Collider was indeed a Higgs boson, with other physicists expressing their excitement and exhilaration of the discovery.

Life versus life

Indeed, some data suggests that even the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrials wouldn't shake human society beyond its ability to cope. One survey of more than 1,300 religious individuals released in 2011 found that believers were extremely confident that the discovery of intelligent aliens wouldn't shake their faith.

"Theologians and religious leaders who have looked at this, it's surprising to me that they have so little to say — almost as if it's not interesting," said Ted Peters, a theologian at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, Calif., who led the study.

Mars microbial life would be unlikely to have much of a theological impact, Peters told LiveScience. Most religious traditions hold that life is the creation of God, but don't commit to an exact explanation of how God did it. Life's origin could happen through chemistry multiple times throughout the solar system and not conflict with these worldviews, Peters said.

The discovery of intelligent life somewhere in the universe would be far more theologically significant, Peters said. Such a discovery could throw open fundamentally spiritual questions, he said: Are the aliens spiritual? Do they have a sense of morality, empathy or love?

Intelligent aliens could also provide answers about the evolution of religious belief, Peters said. Some scientists hold that religion is a primitive way of explaining the world, and that science will replace it, he said. If super-intelligent aliens were to both embrace science and God, it might disprove that evolutionary theory.

Discovering intelligent life would also be scientifically valuable, above and beyond any discovery that microbes evolved on Mars, McKay said. There are three big steps that get you to a species like humans: The origin of life, the evolution of complex life such as plants and animals, and, finally, the development of intelligence.

"We don't have any expectation that, on Mars, life did the other two steps," beyond possibly originating, McKay said. "Communicating with extraterrestrial intelligence takes us to the end of that comparison, so we immediately know that all three steps occurred." ( LiveScience.com )

READ MORE - If a microorganism were found on Mars, would anyone care?

Everything you need to know about meteor strikes

Everything you need to know about meteor strikes - Incidents like the one over Russia happen roughly once every five years, and there's little we can do to predict them

On Friday, a meteor exploded 32,000 feet above the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, lighting up the sky and producing a shockwave that shook buildings and shattered windows. At least 1,000 people were injured in the blasts, the highest toll ever caused by an object from space. Video footage of the meteorites, while mesmerizing, is also terrifying. It "appeals to our most primitive fears," tweeted The Week's D.B. Grady. "It's an astonishing glimpse at the end of the world." Here's what you should know about Russia's meteor blast, and others like it: 

First off: What exactly is a meteor?

Meteors are space rocks that find their way into Earth's atmosphere. They can be as small as a grain of sand or as big as a boulder. They usually burn up during their descent. The ones that survive are called meteorites, and they can hit the Earth at speeds of up to 18,600 mph.

How often do they hit Earth?

Small strikes occur once every few months, but often go unnoticed. "Two-thirds of the Earth is ocean, so we tend to miss them," says Robert Massey of Britain's Royal Astronomical Society. He estimates the object that exploded over Russia was roughly 30 feet across upon entry, and weighed eight to 10 tons. Meteorite strikes this big are rare, but still happen about once every five years. In 2008, for instance, a big meteor exploded over Sudan. No one was hurt.

Can we detect these meteors before they hit?

Not really. Meteors like this go mostly undetected by telescopes, which are busy scanning for massive asteroids. And even if we do manage to spot an incoming rock, "there's not a weapon forged by man that could do something about it," says Spencer Ackerman at Wired. But don't worry: "You're thousands of times more likely to die by car on [your] way to work" than by meteor strike, says Brian Weeden of the Secure Earth Foundation.

What's the worst-case scenario for a meteorite strike?

The largest meteorite strike in recorded history was in 1908, also over Russia. Know as the "Tunguska event," the blast from the impact was more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It leveled millions of trees, but miraculously, no one was killed. If a similar impact happened over a metropolitan area, the city would be destroyed. "It's a global challenge and we need to find a solution together," says European Space Agency spokesman Bernhard von Weyhe.

Check out footage of Friday's strike over Russia:

READ MORE - Everything you need to know about meteor strikes

Mars rover Curiosity stands down after new problem

Mars rover Curiosity stands down after new problem — After recovering from a computer problem, the Mars rover Curiosity is sidelined again, further delaying the restart of science experiments.

The latest complication occurred over the weekend when the six-wheel rover entered safe mode after experiencing a software file error.

Associated Press/NASA - This composite image released by NASA shows a panoramic view of Mount Sharp, made from dozens of images. The Martian mountain is the ultimate destination for the Curiosity rover. NASA scientists said Monday March 18, 2013, the rover went into safe mode over the weekend, further delaying the restart of science experiments. (AP Photo/NASA)

Curiosity remained in contact with ground controllers, but it can't zap rocks, snap pictures or roam around until the problem is fixed. Rover team members had expected to resume activities Monday, but they now have to wait a bit longer — perhaps until the end of the week.

"We would definitely like to get over this and get back to doing something," said project manager Richard Cook of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which operates the $2.5 billion mission.

Studies at the Gale Crater landing site have been on hold since the beginning of March after engineers discovered a problem with Curiosity's computer memory, possibly caused by space radiation. The latest snafu isn't as serious, but any unexpected problem throws off the schedule, Cook said.

It's the longest stretch of inactivity since Curiosity's daring touchdown near the Martian equator last year.

Just before halting its investigations, the nuclear-powered rover used the drill at the end of its 7-foot-long robotic arm to bore into a rock near where it landed and analyze the powder.

Last week, scientists announced the results from the first drilling: Curiosity had discovered an ancient Martian environment that could have been favorable for primitive microbial life. Despite the excitement over achieving one of the mission's main goals, it has yet to find complex organic molecules considered the chemical building blocks of life.

Once Curiosity returns to normal, it'll only have a few days to work before a planetary alignment limits radio communication between Earth and Mars during most of next month. ( Associated Press )

READ MORE - Mars rover Curiosity stands down after new problem