while you sip on your venti latte?

Overcoming their reluctance to waste the Fire Service's time paid off for a Timaru family who noticed a "funny smell" inside their home last night.

Herald reporter Fleur Cogle noticed the smell at her Matai Crescent home late on Monday night, but no amount of checking could locate the source.

"I felt reluctant about wasting Fire Service time but knew I wouldn't sleep unless it was checked,wholesale fashion shoes so I called 111 for peace of mind."

And that decision proved correct, as it is in around 60 per cent of cases, Senior Station Officer Lex Ferguson explained. Further checking for the smell by the fire crew found melted wire in the switchboard.

"There was no actual fire, and no smoke, just a funny smell in the switchboard area which also felt very warm to touch.

"As it was explained to me,the wire might have continued to melt and eventually cause a fire - or it could have gone out. Either way, it's fair to say we are relieved - both that we made the call and that we discovered the wire when we did,'' Ms Cogle said.

At this time of year the Fire Service gets a call to a smell or some other unusual incident in Timaru about once every six weeks, and they are more than happy with that, Mr Ferguson said.

"We would rather get called in the early stages than to the flames through the roof of the house at 2am."

If they did not find anything, but the smell returned, they were keen to be told so they could have another attempt at locating it, as obviously something was wrong.

He said people were often embarrassed to call them, but there was no need, as often as not the crew did find the cause of the smell. A thermal imaging camera used by the crew can locate "hot spots" behind walls or in other concealed spaces.

"Smell" calls were more common in summer, when the source was often smoke drifting into a house from a burnoff.

Sometimes it is only because a number of people around the country called about the same problem, that a fault in an appliance is detected. Mr Ferguson recalled that being the case with an early-model flat screen TV, and more recently, with some models of Samsung washing machines.

 Sick of looking for an outlet to charge your phone while you sip on your venti latte? It may be a thing of the past, if Starbucks has anything to say about it.

The coffee shop giant recently announced that some of its stores in Silicon Valley will allow customers to charge their phones using wireless charging technology. One of its San Jose, Calif., stores is debuting the capability today.

Linda Mills, a spokeswoman for Starbucks, said that the company was looking at the next big thing to improve the coffee drinker's experience while in the store.

"Customers are using mobile devices more and more," she told ABC News. "Keeping your devices powered is a problem."

Starbucks uses the Duracell Powermat to charge both phones and tablets. Customers will lay their smart device flat on a designated Powermat surface.

According to Daniel Schreiber, the president of Powermat Technologies, the closer the device, the more efficient the power transfer.

"Using wireless charges just as fast as a cable, with no degradation, at all," he told ABC News.

He added that at each participating Starbucks, there are 10 to 12 wireless charging stations, meaning that even though the technology may not require a plug, you still might be vying for valuable coffee shop real estate with other customers.
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The race between Dawn Approach and Toronado

When The Flying Dutchman met Voltigeur in a match race at York in 1851 at least 100,000 spectators were reported to have turned up to see it. When Seabiscuit took on War Admiral, the previous year's Triple Crown winner, at Pimlico in 1938, the 40,000 crowd at the track was a tiny fraction of the 40m who tuned in to the radio commentary.

Match races are no longer a feature of racing on either side of the Atlantic, having fallen out of favour in the US since the brilliant filly Ruffian suffered a fatal injury in the early stages of a match at Belmont in 1975. Yet the simple, all-or-nothing appeal of an evenly balanced head-to-head can still have the power to fascinate and to sell tickets, too.

There will be more than two runners in the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood on Wednesday afternoon but the course is still eager to promote it as the "Duel on the Downs".

Some head-to-heads, like Seabiscuit versus War Admiral, are a long-delayed meeting between champions from different countries or generations. The race between Dawn Approach and Toronado at Goodwood is the other kind of head-to-head, the one with a score that needs to be settled.

Like Voltigeur and The Flying Dutchman, who had been first and second in the Doncaster Cup prior to their famous match the following year, the two market leaders in Wednesday's race have met before.

The first occasion was the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in April, when Dawn Approach was an impressive winner and Toronado flopped in fourth. Then, in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, Toronado was within a short-head of revenge after taking a bump in the home straight.

Richard Hughes, Toronado's jockey, is looking forward to the next meeting between the two colts more than anyone. "I've been thinking about it from the time I heard the result being called at [Royal] Ascot," Hughes said.

"I feel there is a bit [of a score to settle], I feel I was very unlucky at Ascot. I think an awful lot of the horse and I'd love him to show his true best. He weighs 530 kilos and he was driven sideways at the most crucial point of the race last time,shoes manufacturer so I think there's a good argument that I only have to find a little bit."

Dawn Approach – said by Jim Bolger, his trainer, on Saturday to be in "better than good form, mighty awesome form" – has lost only once in nine career starts, when he was last after starting favourite for the Derby in early June.

The Irish-trained runner is narrowly preferred in the ante-post market at a top price of 5-4, while Toronado is 13-8. Between them the pair take out nearly 85% of the market with Declaration Of War, the Queen Anne Stakes winner, their only serious rival at 5-1.

"I presume both of us [Hughes and Kevin Manning, Dawn Approach's jockey] would like a nice strong-run race so his horse and mine can settle," Hughes said. "I can't see there being more than five runners, so as long as it's a nice clean race I'll be happy and, if I get beaten, it will be fair and square.

"I enjoy Goodwood and I ride with confidence around there, I feel like I know how to do the right thing around there but that doesn't always mean you're getting all the luck. You need that on your side there now and again."

For Dawn Approach, victory would push his claim to be Europe's best three-year-old miler beyond the point of reasonable doubt. It would guarantee star status when he retires to join Sheikh Mohammed's Darley Stud breeding business, and revive the spirits of the Godolphin racing operation as it attempts to emerge from the shadow of a doping scandal. Yet in the space of two minutes Toronado could seize the kudos and establish his own claim to be the best around, because this meeting between the pair is the one that most racing fans are going to remember.

"It's very good for racing," Hughes says. "When they both loomed up in the Guineas at Newmarket, you could hear the roar go up from the stands, and that day I knew after going a furlong that I wouldn't win the Guineas. Hearing that roar is why we ride all the other horses, so that we can get on the good ones."
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The gameplay in Einstein Enigma is based around the machinations

While the Samsung Galaxy S4 does make the Apple iPhone 5 feel old there are certain things that one misses about the iPhone and here are just some of them.

The Apple iPhone 5 does have a lot of crapware, this is nothing when you compare it to the crapware that you cannot delete on the Samsung Galaxy S4. Do you really want Play Books, Play Magazines, Play Movies, TV, Music and Play Store?

Samsung have added on a lot of stuff that you cannot delete, while Apple keep rubbish from carriers off their handsets. When you have the Samsung Galaxy S4 you have lots of junk.

One of the things that is missing on the Samsung Galaxy S4 is Microsoft Office 365 support for office for the iPad. The version of Office on the Apple iPad is the same as the one on Windows phone. This is a feature that is not seen on the Samsung Galaxy S4.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 might come with the back that is replaceable, built in charging and a battery that is replaceable. However this cannot match the variety of accessories that you can get with the Apple iPhone. There is a huge range of add ons for the phone with anything from just fun to frivolous.

For instance iHealthLabs offer blood pressure monitors, wireless activity monitors, wireless scale and a wireless pulse oximeter, these are all superb tools, but you can only get them with iOS.

Okay, so you've bought your iPhone, or SmartPhone, or iPod, or whatever the portable device is that you're going to carry with you and entrust so much of your life to. It's now time to protect it. Is that necessary? women shoes manufacturer Well -- not totally. If the sides or back get dinged or scratched, does that really matter? To some people, it does -- the design of the thing, after all, is half the joy of a handheld device. More to the point, a case does offer some protection if it gets dropped. Okay, when it gets dropped. Though don't think you can drop something without impunity, just because there's a case around it. So, there is value in a case. But where protection is a near-necessity is with the screen, since if that gets scratched up, it might render your device too difficult to read. So, we look at a couple of those products here, as well -- with quite interesting results.

Know, too, that although these are all for the iPod touch (which was reviewed her in March), most of these cases will have an equivalent for the iPhone, so if something strikes your interest, it's worth checking the company websites to see if there's something that matches. I know it's not a perfect solution, but one plays with the cards you have. Perhaps that will change in the future.

The gameplay in Einstein Enigma is based around the machinations of the enigma rotor cipher machine that Germany used to send messages during the World War II.

Each puzzle board contains at least two differently coloured axels that are surrounded by four separate pieces. The contents of the axels tend to overlap, and you need to slide your finger or thumb along the sides of the wheels in order to match up the coloured pieces with their proper axel.

Easier said than done. When you rotate the contents of one axel, all the surrounding pieces respond regardless of colour. In other words, you may think that sliding a single wayward puzzle piece back into its proper home would be easy, but chances are that pieces are going to wind up everywhere and the whole game board will look like a madman hacked up the wheels with a cleaver.

Working through the puzzles in Einstein Enigma takes foresight, patience, and a strong stomach for a lot of restarts.
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Personal fitness devices like Fitbit also are a rapidly

For as long as personal computers have been on the market, there have been accessory makers churning out keyboards, mice and other add-ons.

But it was the age of mobile, portable computing that really whipped the accessory industry into a froth.

If you bought a PC, you only needed one keyboard and maybe a better mouse. However, smartphone and tablet owners often buy multiple cases, stands, screen protectors, ear buds, Bluetooth headsets, wireless speaker docks, spare cables, extra power adapters, battery packs and styluses — not to mention that keyboard. They want to customize their device, protect it and expand its capabilities.

But what happens if the next great thing is wearable technology? Are consumers going to be piling on the accessories the same way?

Between the physical form factor of the upcoming devices, increased competition and a growing movement by technology manufacturers to offer their own accessories — like that clever Microsoft (MSFT) Surface Touch Cover — it seems unlikely that the accessories party is going to continue at the same frenzied pace.

Zagg (ZAGG) is a company that personifies the smartphone/tablet effect. Worth about 75 cents per share at the time Apple (AAPL) first released the iPhone, Zagg aggressively went after the new smartphone market, producing everything from plastic film screen protectors to cases with built-in keyboards that effectively turn a tablet into a laptop. By 2011, ZAGG was hitting the $16 range, achieving more than 2,000% growth.

But last week, Zagg announced preliminary quarterly results that showed how brutal the current accessories market has become. It said it expected earnings to fall well below analyst projections and lowered FY 2013′s revenue projection, throwing ZAGG into a 15% tailspin that day; shares currently rest below $5, off 70% compared its 2011 heyday.

If the smartphone and table markets are already getting tougher for accessory makers, the future doesn’t look that bright if wearable tech really does become the next big thing.

Take the smartwatch, for example. There simply aren’t a whole lot of opportunities to accessorize these things. The most obvious is the watchband itself, but companies like Pebble that are currently making the devices offer different bands as an option themselves. If smartwatch makers opt to use a standard wristwatch band,Home electricity monitor then every existing replacement watch band company on the planet could become a player. Heck, that could happen even if they have to offer customized fittings for compatibility.

Personal fitness devices like Fitbit also are a rapidly growing market, but the only real option for a motion tracker, heart rate monitor or other such gadget is a protective cover. And guess who makes those and often gives one away with every tracker sold?

Augmented reality glasses are making waves, with Google’s Project Glass leading the way. But what’s a Zagg to do for glasses? Google is already experimenting with various frames, and the most likely outcome is that there will be a prescription frame option. Zagg is going to find itself up against Luxottica  and dozens of other established brand-name eyeglass frame manufacturers if it wants a piece of the action — assuming Google even offers the option of mounting the Project Glass hardware on third-party frames.

In short, wearable tech is not only likely to offer fewer options for accessorizing, but it’s also liable to pit consumer tech accessory makers against the technology manufacturers themselves, as well as established companies that supply the “analog” version of the products.

The current worldwide transition from feature phones to smartphones is likely to take some of the sting out of the lack of opportunity to accessorize wearable tech but competition is growing from cheaper manufacturers based in China. If you own an iPhone 5, you can pay $35 for a nice iPhone 5 case from Logitech  or $25 for one from Zagg, but there are thousands of silicon and hard cases for the device available on eBay in the $1 bucket from Chinese suppliers.

And if wearable tech companies offering their own customization options and competition from cheap Chinese accessory makers weren’t enough to give Zagg, Logitech and others fits, there’s one last potential iceberg on the horizon.

3D printers might not be ready for prime time yet, but what happens when consumers can simply bypass accessory makers altogether and print their own cases and add-ons? Nokia has already released official 3D blueprints for its Lumia 820 smartphone so that anyone with a 3D printer can churn out as many protective cases as they want and even customize them.
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which will be a boon for comedians

James Yon of Orlando always enjoyed making people laugh. He was working at a theme park when a friend persuaded him to try stand-up. They wrote five minutes of material, and Yon practiced his routine for months to prepare for an open-mic night at a local Bonkerz comedy club.

"I ended up doing very well, so well that I actually killed at an open mic. And from that point on, I was hooked. It was a drug," Yon said. "I needed to do that again. And again. And again. So that's how I began."

At the time, Yon said, he and his wife had two kids, with a third on the way. You can imagine his wife's surprise when he announced he wanted to pursue comedy full time.

But Yon said his career took off quickly, and now, comedy has become a family business. His wife books the shows and helps him write the script for his brand-new TV show on Dish Network called Viral Breakdown, in which he shares humorous commentary on Internet videos. The couple now have four children, and on the weekends, the whole family is often together, wherever Yon happens to have a show.

"It's great because we go to these nice places, casinos, resorts and whatnot. They take such good care of my entire family," Yon said. "My kids think we take a bunch of vacations throughout the year."

To get to where Yon is, up and comers need a comedy scene to hone their craft. They need stage time and venues in which to present their material and polish their routines in front of an audience.

It's something comedian Mike Di Tommaso said is lacking in Seminole County, compared with the bustling scene in New York. Di Tommaso, who has been in the business for 20 years, started his career there by performing at open-mic nights. He now routinely travels across the country to New York and Los Angeles for shows.

Di Tommaso moved to the Sanford area in 2011, but he said he doesn't do much locally and that, in his experience, there isn't much in the area for established comedians.

"Years ago I was doing a lot of church work here; I don't know if it's the recession, but I think because of the recession a lot of people just stopped hiring comedians. It's a luxury," he said.

These days, Di Tommaso is traveling most weekends to do shows. He said, at this point in his career, when he's doing hour-long shows and performing at casinos in the Midwest, searching for clubs in the area just doesn't work for him.

However, venues such as Holly & Dolly's in Casselberry are working to establish more of a comedy scene in Seminole County. For the past four months, it has been offering an open-mic night every other Sunday.

"We try to get the comedians to promote themselves to bring people out. Our regular crowd generally will stay for it," owner Biff Kaminski said. "They've had some good nights and some bad nights. I'll admit - it's hit or miss."

But soon, Holly & Dolly's may be the go-to venue for comedy in the area.

In May, Holly & Dolly's hired comedian Jersey to perform at a birthday party for one of its owners. Kaminski said Jersey was onstage for almost two hours and had the audience in the palm of his hand the whole time.

Jersey's manager and comedy producer, Gus Zuniga, saw something special in Holly & Dolly's. He said he believed it had the audience and atmosphere that could successfully host a show once a month.

Holly & Dolly's inaugural comedy show will be on July 27. There will be no cover charge, and Jersey will be the headlining comedian. Zuniga and Kaminski said they plan to host a show, free of charge, on the last Saturday of each month.

Zuniga said the comedy scene in the Central Florida area is spread out and that many comedians in the county travel to Orlando to perform. By working with Holly & Dolly's, he's hoping to help establish more of a comedy scene in Seminole County, which will be a boon for comedians and audiences in the area.

"A good thing about bringing comedy to Seminole County is that [comedians] are going to have a venue for them to perform at as well," Zuniga said. "We definitely want to grow that into something big."

He said having a venue like this one allows up-and-coming comics to shine as well.

Zuniga said, typically, one starts off doing open-mic nights - a learning ground for new comedians. There, they usually have about five minutes on stage to practice in front of an audience and get comfortable on stage, not only with their material, but also with holding a microphone, interacting with audiences and learning how to grab their attention.

If a comedian does well on stage during an open-mic night, it may lead to an opportunity to perform during a guest spot, have eight minutes on stage during a comedy show or maybe to be a host, the first one on stage who introduces the acts for the night,China shoes manufacturer who typically gets a few minutes on stage to help warm up the crowd.

Featured comics typically go on for about 25 minutes as a sort of opening act for a headliner, who may be on stage for about an hour or more.

"There are comedians who need stage time to make it to the next level," Zuniga said. "They may be doing open mics all the time, but getting a stage show with people like Jersey that have been headlining for a while is good for them."

Zuniga said it takes a collaboration between comedians, promoters and venues to create a successful scene. In addition, he said, venues need to be dedicated to working to make comedy thrive.

It's a formula that the Why Not Lounge in Altamonte Springs has down to a science. Justin Williams, director of entertainment for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Howard Johnson Plaza and Why Not Lounge, said it has been a venue for Bonkerz Comedy Club for the past two decades.

Williams said at the Why Not Lounge, the focus is on entertainment. Whereas most places are set up to be a restaurant or bar, he said, his venue is set up to entertain, and the bar and restaurant accommodate the entertainment.
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when considering last quarter sales

There is a huge amount of interest in upcoming Apple iPhones, with the iPhone 5S widely expected to launch in September and an iPhone 6 set for 2014. We’ve been keeping readers informed with leaks and speculation about the next iPhones, but of course nothing has been officially announced yet about either device. One thing that looks certain though is that the success of the iPhone 5 and 6 is promising, when considering last quarter sales.

It’s easy to assume that any future iPhone will be a big hit, as Apple generates a large amount of brand loyalty, and previous iterations of the iPhone have all been hits. Therefore we can say without too much prevarication that the iPhone 5S and 6 are assured a decent amount of sales. women shoes factory However, it seems to be the case that demand for the iPhone is growing, as shown by the latest estimates for the June quarter.

Analysts’ estimates for last quarter iPhone sales range from 23 million to 32 million, with a median of 27 million units. Although it has been reported that there seems to be a slowdown of high-end smartphone sales globally, the verdict from 45 Apple analysts bucks this idea, with the consensus suggesting that iPhone sales still grew in the June quarter.

Fortune reports on the findings of 28 professional analysts and 17 amateurs for fiscal Q3 this year, and the resulting estimate of 27.15 million iPhones sales indicates a rise of 4.3% over the same time last year when sales were 26.03 million. Although this indicates a much slower growth than in previous years, it does still show growth.

This growth becomes even more notable when taking into account that the most recent iPhone, the iPhone 5, is already 9 months old, while the iPhone 4S is 21 months old and the iPhone 4 is 36 months old. On July 23 Apple will report on fiscal Q3 2013 earnings and we’ll know just how accurate these estimates are.

These figures certainly suggest very encouraging potential for sales of the iPhone 5S and 6, and although other makers may be seeing a slowdown in sales, that doesn’t seem to be the case for Apple going on these latest estimates. We recently told about Google’s huge promotional budget for the Moto X in a bid to rival the iPhone 5S, and it will be interesting to see exactly what happens over the next few months for all smartphone sales.

Before we wrap up we’ll give you some of the expectations for the iPhone 5S, but remember none of this is official just yet. Just of a few of the leaks and rumors suggest an upgraded processor, a 13-megapixel camera, possibly with slow-motion video capture, more storage options, and a fingerprint sensor, and it’s likely to be running iOS 7 out of the box.

We’re interested to hear your thoughts on the latest analysts’ estimates regarding current iPhone sales, and how they appear to indicate that Apple is still achieving growth? Are you waiting for the launch of the iPhone 5S? Why not send us your comments with your views.

The Moto X Phone has already been in the hands of Google’s chairman and a number of photos revealing the Moto X in Eric Schmidt’s hands made some people a little jealous. You can see all the hands-on photos with Google’s Moto X Phone in their article.

Back to Forbes, you can see in their article that they feel strongly about the Samsung Galaxy S4 reducing its price to compete with the upcoming iPhone 5S and Moto X Phone. The author makes it clear that a price war is coming, but in our opinion the plastic iPhone 5 with a cheaper price point is almost certain considering the range of leaks.

It will be interesting to see how this cheap iPhone 5 competes with the range of Galaxy S4 models and their price points, although Apple will need to get the specs up to scratch even with a cheaper price.

With Google investing hundreds of millions into the Moto X Phone, this will have an impact on Apple’s launch plans and Samsung’s aim for smartphone feature dominance, but we highly doubt any phone could stop Apple’s iPhone 5S if it launches with some vital changes. This is especially true for the extremely loyal Apple fans, and there are millions of them in many countries.
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who published information leaked by an Apple employee

Large corporations like Apple employ scores of lawyers who, according to USA Today, are at least as important as software engineers and product designers. One reason for that importance is the fact that Apple’s legal team is very good at what they do.

One notable, perhaps even infamous, example of the prowess of Apple’s legal team involved negotiations with the government of Ireland to keep Apple’s non-U.S. income there at a great tax advantage, according to USA Today.

In addition to sheltering assets and protecting the company when others take legal action against it, many of Apple’s courtroom battles have to do with intellectual property rights.

One recent intellectual property case involved Apple vs. Samsung, over features on Samsung smartphones and tablets that Apple claimed they owned and that Samsung “slavishly copied.” Bloomberg reported in June that Apple won the most recent battle in that case, although Apple and Samsung have gone back and forth, for what seems like ages on the matter.

In addition to the many, well-publicized intellectual property rights cases in which Apple has been involved, the company has also played a role in other types of case law as well, including antitrust claims, consumer actions, commercial unfair trade practice suits, defamation claims and even corporate espionage.

Newstalk listed several of the more notable lawsuits that involved Apple, including one filed by the company against bloggers in 2004 who published information leaked by an Apple employee. Apple initially won, but a California Court of Appeals reversed the decision.

Sometimes, as Reuters reported Wednesday, the matter ends up in a draw. Such was the case regarding the suit between Apple and over who has the right to use the “app store” name.

Ultimately, Apple issued a covenant to Amazon, promising not to sue over the retailer’s use of the “app store” term and U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California ordered the case dismissed.

 Much of the time, however, Apple wins. Sometimes with a sense of humor. In 1994, Newstalk said, when Apple engineers used “Carl Sagan” as a codename for the new Macintosh computer, the famous astronomer,ladies shoes wholesale thinking it might be misinterpreted as an endorsement, asked Apple to change the name.

Apple complied, instead codenaming it "BHA." When Sagan found out that BHA stood for "butt-headed astronomer," he sued Apple, claiming it damaged his reputation. Apple won that lawsuit. After Sagan filed multiple appeals, however, the company settled out of court.

In an apparent dig at its own legal team, Apple changed the code name again, to LaW, short for “Lawyers are Wimps.”

This also allows what’s referred to as a ‘lossless zoom’, whereby you can zoom in digitally on a photo without compromising the clarity or detail. The Lumia 1020 also utilises a Xenon flash paired with a mechanical shutter, meaning it can carefully control the amount of light which enters the sensor.

As with the Nokia 808, some of the best results can be obtained simply by setting the camera to 8-megapixels and letting the oversampling do its thing.

The Lumia 1020 also uses Carl Zeiss optics, a back-illuminated sensor (BSI), optical image stabilisation (OIS) and f/2.2 aperture. It’ll capture video at 1080p and can automatically capture both 5-megapixel and 32-megapixel images at the same time to give users one file to share and one more detailed version for editing or printing.

Nokia has also bundled-in the Nokia Pro Cam app which allows greater control for settings like ISO, White Balance, Manual Focus, Shutter speed and Flash.
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The most exciting prospect is probably the fact

Whether these smaller games are your thing or not is something you’ll have to decide for yourself. There are some great gaming experiences on offer, if you know what you’re looking for, and the OUYA’s “Discover” section does a reasonable – if repetitive – job of surfacing some of the better games. The fact that each section of recommended games, be they the platform’s “featured” or a guest “playlist”, contains pretty much the same list of games is testament to how limited the selection is just now. But it’s early days and, if the platform’s “every game must have a free version” mantra doesn’t ruin the chances of developers profiting, there’s plenty of time for expansion in the software catalogue.

Everything on the OUYA Play section is playable with the controller but it’s also relatively easy to side-load much of the Android library, if you can get your hands on the .apk files that install them. The legality of this is often a grey area – some developers will just give you their install files while some apps can only be found by grubbing around in the internet’s less salubrious regions and circumventing the publisher’s approved distribution methods. Anything you side-load will likely have different degrees of controller support, most of it having been made for the touch-screen hardware that Android traditionally powers.

The controller, though, is awful. It feels like something designed by someone who has a vested interest in increasing the occurrence of hand cramp in gamers. Ergonomic, it isn’t.

It’s also shoddily made. The D-pad manages to achieve something I thought impossible: it’s worse than the Xbox 360 D-pad. For the style of games that currently dominate the Play section on OUYA – largely precise, focussed games in a pseudo-retro style – that’s unworkable. The triggers feel cheap and flimsy, with far too much sideways wobble as they descend and the face buttons are similarly spongey and regularly stick down, caught under the casing. The almost smooth, convex analogue sticks seem designed to offer the best possible chance of thumb-slippage and the trackpad in the centre of the controller is laggy and unresponsive. This is the worst videogame controller I’ve used in quite some time.

Happily, the vast majority of OUYA games are also compatible with one of the best controllers available: the PlayStation 3’s DualShock 3. Pairing this superior controller is simple, too, just plug it in once with the USB cable and it’ll pair to the OUYA and work until you pair it with something else. You lose the touchpad on the OUYA controller but there are limited use-cases for that at the moment anyway. Bluetooth keyboards and mice can also be paired, and presumably headsets would also work, in case anyone ports a chat app to it or a developer puts voice chat in their OUYA game. Unlikely? Maybe, but the potential of the OUYA is its most interesting aspect.

The OUYA is certainly not alone in the Android-powered games console market, although it’s the most well-known and probably the best funded. Competitors like GameStick and different approaches like Unu hint at the emergence of a veritable plethora of options in this largely unexplored mobile-to-TV market. It seems that numerous companies are seeing the potential in putting cheap (relatively) hardware, ostensibly for gaming, under your TV.wholesale fashion shoes The most exciting prospect is probably the fact that these systems are so easy to break into. OUYA might have a limited store just now but developing for Android is relatively easy and cheap. It’s also a hotbed for the retro emulation crowd – something that the OUYA supports quite openly.

Emulators are another legal grey area and it’s futile for us to go too deep on the discussion of the legality or morality behind emulating older systems on newer hardware. In very simple terms, emulators are generally perfectly legal but the software they enable is potentially still owned by someone else and running it on an emulator contravenes licensing laws. But it’s available, it’s simple and it works on OUYA. If you stick to emulating the games that you still own, on a tape or cartridge in your attic for example, you shouldn’t be straying far enough from legal or moral safe ground, either.

Solely as a games console, OUYA falls short at the moment and it’s incredibly unlikely that it will ever offer anything to tempt console gamers that generally stick to their modern military shooters, sports and racing games. If you like the kind of focussed experience that mobile gaming is abundant with, or smaller-scale indie games that don’t need the most powerful hardware to run on, there’s ample potential in OUYA. Likewise, if you’re keen on emulation (and happy with the ambiguous legality), OUYA is an ideal platform for you.
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Diamond standard for transition to online emporium

Inheriting the family diamond business sounds like a dream come true. But for Gus Hashem, the transition from suburban jewellery outfit to international online diamond behemoth has been a long journey.

Hashem's father, Simon, established the business in Lebanon in 1977. The family migrated to Australia in 1988, where Hashem snr continued with the business until 2006 when Gus joined it. He had previously worked in financial services, but had always had a passion for jewellery.

''We didn't have a succession plan, it was just a small business. When I joined I worked on developing the website and moved the business into the [Sydney] CBD. We rebranded as Diamond Emporium and launched the site in 2010,'' Gus says.

He also changed the focus of the business to selling diamond engagement rings. ''Dad's business was more about handmade chains, and that market was dwindling.''

Gus says the enterprise has experienced double-digit growth since 2010 and expects further growth in coming years. ''People think retail is tough but there are great opportunities for businesses willing to make changes. But businesses like ours that are based on technology have to run like a well-oiled machine.''

For Diamond Emporium, this started with moving away from a bricks-and-mortar business model with high overheads to a largely online offering. Gus purposely did not want to expand the business through shopping centres to keep costs low.

''We do have a city office where we meet clients by appointment,'' he says, explaining that this largely eliminates tyre-kicker customers who just come in to window shop without buying, but who take up staff time, which is costly.

''Our main focus is now online. I think we were one of the first fully functional websites where you could view and select diamonds and engagement rings,'' Gus says.

''The key has been providing transparency around pricing. All our prices are available online and discounted from the full retail price.''

Gus started selling excess stock from the business on eBay before the website was up and running. But he soon realised a time-limited auction-based business model wasn't the right way to sell precious stones.

A point of difference has been cutting out the middlemen in the diamond industry. He buys from wholesalers who buy directly from diamond mines. This generates savings for the business, which are passed on to customers.

''This gives us an advantage locally and internationally. People think they can get things cheaper in the US, but we're just as competitive [on price]. We can price match and few family businesses can make that claim.''

Gus says he has always seen the website as a proper business and has not been afraid to spend money on it - he says he's spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on it since launching to create a site that looks as high end as the diamonds he sells.

''Most people do their research online and if you're selling luxury items you have to present in a luxury way. Many of our competitors have missed that point, but it works well for us.''

Gus acknowledges it was difficult managing the transition of ownership from his father to himself. Simon was initially sceptical about moving to an online model and had never used a computer. But when inquiries started to come in from the online side of the operation he became more supportive of Gus' efforts. But he still struggles with the idea that people would buy something of value over the internet.

''It wasn't until we sold something online for $8000 to a client in the US that he got it,'' says Gus.

Hashem senior is still involved in the enterprise, looking after aspects of production.

Gus' view is that there are still huge opportunities to develop the business and that the internet is in its infancy. ''It's still in its early days. At the moment we're trying to grow market share in a market dominated by big players. We also have plans to expand the business in Brisbane and Melbourne where we want to set up boutique offices similar to the one we have in Sydney,wholesale women shoes where people can come in and discuss their design requirements.''

He is also in the process of revamping the site and building functionality so that people can design and customise their wedding bands online.
Click on their website www.beralleshoes.com for more information.