ETonline has spent the last week showing love to the Best of 2012 -- from film to television to fashion and celeb scandals, we reviewed and ranked the last 365 days, bringing you only the best!
In case you missed any of our Year End Roundups, they're all available below!
12 Most Exciting Stars of 2012
12 Best TV Shows of 2012
12 Biggest Celebrity Scandals of 2012
12 Most Gorgeous Gowns of 2012
12 Best Movies of 2012
12 Favorite Celebrity Couples of 2012
12 Most Memorable News Stories of 2012
MyFOXCT
Alleged scammer Nouel Alba leaves Hartford Ct. Federal court after making $50K bail.
Nouel Alba -- out on $50,000 bond in the alleged Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting scam – set up at least two organizations in the wake of the devastating October superstorm and asked folks to send money for victims to her personal PayPal account or home address.
Sources said yesterday that New York law enforcement is “aware” of Alba’s post-storm solicitations.
Just days after Hurricane Sandy, Facebook pages, Web sites and blogs sprung up on the Internet, listing Alba’s personal gmail account and Clason Point home on Beach Avenue as contacts.
One group – the NYC Hurricane Relief Fund – claimed to be “a registered charity” whose “founder [has] been funded by the Alba family,” and whose home served as “a drop off location and distribution center.” The charity vowed to find clothing, kitchen appliances, mattresses, furniture and shelter for devastated Sandy families, and claimed “we assign someone to manage each family to ensure that they receive most of the things they need to get back on their feet.”
“100 % of all proceeds goes toward these families,” boasted the site. It provided a tax-ID number that does not show up in state or IRS record databases.
Another charity, Operation Hurricane Sandy Relief for Teachers and Students, ostensibly collected money, backpacks and school supplies. Alba also personally set up an Amazon “wish list” for donated school items, her online footprint shows.
All of the Alba-connected hurricane relief sites have been disabled but cached versions remain online.
Connecticut authorities said yesterday that Alba used Facebook, the phone and texts to solicit donations for a “funeral fund” for her “nephew” Noah after the Newtown bloodbath that killed the little boy, 19 of his classmates and 6 educators.
Alba asked that funds be sent via her personal PayPal account or direct bank deposit, according to a federal complaint against her.
The twisted Alba, 36, even told prospective donors that she had to enter Sandy Hook Elementary School after the bloodbath and identify her “nephew” for police — and said the child had “11 gun shots in his little body.”
Noah’s family has said Alba is no relation.
Alba allegedly sent out her first calls for cash within hours of the shooting.
The next day, she said in an online posting that a funeral fund had been set up “for my brother and families,” according to the complaint in Hartford federal court.
Alba allegedly claimed in a text to one mark that she met President Obama with other family members and he “hugged us even cried [sic] with us.”
Several people were duped into giving donations, the complaint says, although she refunded them before her arrest. Alba was charged with lying to federal agents and released on a $50,000 bond.
She has denied setting up the Newtown donation sites and claims she was framed by Facebook enemies, the feds said.
“I thought it was a really rotten thing to do and I am glad she got caught,” said Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel of Newton, a friend of the Pozner family.
Additional reporting by Doug Auer
In its latest move to reshape how healthcare is delivered, Florida Blue, the state’s largest health insurance network, has formed an alliance with Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale to deliver integrated care intended to improve quality and lower healthcare costs.
Starting Jan. 1, the insurer will join the 230 doctors in Holy Cross’ Physician Partners to form an accountable care organization (ACO), in which the groups will share savings that are expected to come from coordinated care while maintaining specific quality standards.
Florida Blue already has similar arrangements with a group of Miami-Dade oncologists and Baptist South Florida; Moffitt Cancer Center and Baycare Health System in the Tampa Bay area; and the NCH hospital system in Naples. Jonathan Gavras, the insurer’s chief medical officer, said several more ACOs will be announced shortly.
The ACOs are part of a larger effort by Florida Blue to move away gradually from the expensive fee-for-service model, in which providers are rewarded for each additional treatment.
The plan is replace it with an integrated system that uses evidence-based standards to coordinate care to avoid unnecessary expenses such as duplicated diagnostics and reduce such things as hospital readmissions by ensuring that patients receive the necessary post-hospital services.
The ACOs require that providers and the insurer share financial and quality data — something that both sides have been highly reluctant to do in the past. The reward will be that all will share in savings generated by the system.
While many healthcare theorists believe ACOs may be a major way for the nation to reduce its healthcare costs, Gavras said they’re not a simple fix. “It’s hard work,” he said to get hospitals, doctors and insurers — traditional rivals — to work together.
Shawn Franklin, the Holy Cross executive in charge of physician services, said Holy Cross joined with Florida Blue because “we see ... a huge benefit integrating services, ultimately improving the quality of care ... and lowering cost.”
Holy Cross has been a leader in the national trend of hiring doctors. It now has about 150 on staff and another 80 community doctors that are in its provider network. Physician services continue to lose money for the hospital, Franklin said, but executives are convinced that ACOs will be a large revenue builder in the future.
Unlike the old gatekeeper model of health maintenance organizations, with the new ACOs “you can’t share in any savings without meeting quality criteria,” Franklin said.
Large hospital networks around the country have also been hiring doctors as a prelude to setting up ACOs, and other insurers, too, are starting to get involved. Earlier this month, Aetna announced a new integrated partnership with Baycare in Tampa Bay.
Linda Quick, president of the South Florida Hospital and Healthcare Association, said some other hospitals in the area are starting to explore the possibility of setting up their own ACOs but have yet to act.
Florida Blue has been an aggressive leader in this field of restructuring healthcare. It has set up a bundled payment system with the Mayo Clinic — paying for an episode of care, rather than for each individual service.
More widespread is its move that has put more than 700,000 patients in medical homes — generally with a primary care doctor coordinating their care, offering extended office hours and other benefits — so that basic care is easily available, reducing the need for expensive emergency room trips.
Unlike the old gatekeeper HMOs, the new medical home involves the insurer paying primary care doctors more so that they spend more time with patients. The medical home program was set up in partnership with the Florida Academy of Family Physicians, Gavras said.
“Physicians make more money but overall costs go down,” Gavras said. “You’re investing money up front to get better outcomes.” Unlike the old gatekeepers, doctors in medical homes get bonuses for quality care. “The data is much better” these days, he said. “It’s much easier to measure provider performance.”
The first year of the medical homes program showed “it really works the way everybody thought it would work,” Gavras said, with quality up and costs down. “And physician satisfaction was up.”
Medical homes and ACOs are now separate concepts, but they’re likely to dovetail in the future, Gavras said, with medical homes becoming part of larger ACOs.
Both concepts are emphasized in the federal Affordable Care Act, but Gavras said Florida Blue had been planning for both well before the act was passed in 2010.
“We knew that the healthcare cost trend was unsustainable ... Even if it was repealed tomorrow, we would still be moving toward this model,” Gavras said.
Last week I received several emails from readers who wanted me to write again about computer safety since many got a computer for Christmas. Therefore, I pulled some information from one of our crime prevention partners, The National Crime Prevention Council, and here are tips you need to take seriously whether you are a senior or a parent:
• Use anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date. The software is designed to protect your computer against known viruses but, with new viruses emerging daily, anti-virus programs need regular updates. Check with the website of your anti-virus software company to see sample descriptions of viruses and to get regular updates for your software. I do updates on my computer every other day.
• Don’t open emails or attachments from unknown sources. Be suspicious of any unexpected email attachments even if they appear to be from someone you know. Should you receive a suspicious email, the best thing to do is to delete the entire message, including any attachment.
• Protect your computer from Internet intruders by using firewalls. These create a protective wall between your computer and the outside world. They come in two forms, software firewalls that run on your personal computer and hardware firewalls that protect a number of computers at the same time. Firewalls also ensure that unauthorized persons can’t gain access to your computer while you’re connected to the Internet.
• Use hard-to-guess passwords. Mix upper case, lower case, numbers or other characters, and make sure your passwords are at least eight characters long. Don’t share your password and don’t use the same password in more than one place. Don’t use your maiden name or the names of your mother, your children or your spouse’s family. Those are easy to figure out.
• Disconnect your computer from the Internet when not in use. This lessens the chance that someone will be able to access your computer. Also, if you haven’t kept your anti-virus software up to date or don’t have a firewall in place, someone could infect your computer or use it to harm someone else on the Internet.
• Check your security on a regular basis. You should evaluate your computer security at least twice a year.
• Back up your computer data on a thumb drive, just in case we have a hurricane, you can take it with you. There is nothing worse than losing pictures, information and work when a computer crashes.
Last, I want to remind all parents, if you gave a computer to your child, no matter what age, please make sure that the computer is somewhere you can see it.
In closing, I want to wish everyone a blessed 2013, I wish you the best of health and happiness!
With that said, I must remind everyone that there are crazy people out there that like to shoot guns into the air, a deadly habit, therefore the first shot fired you hear please call the police immediately. You might think it’s fire crackers, but it may not be so please stay away from windows or outside at midnight. Remember what goes up must come down, and that is when people get hurt.
Have a great week!
Distimo just released its statistics on Christmas Day app downloads and revenue growth… and the download spike is far smaller than it was last year. Back in 2011, Christmas Day iOS app download volume spiked 230% above the December average. This year, the increase was just 87% — far below industry expectations. The revenue spike came in at 70%.
[More from BGR: Google names 12 best Android apps of 2012]
Interestingly, iPad downloads increased by 140% this Christmas, implying that the iPhone download bounce was really modest.
[More from BGR: New purported BlackBerry Z10 specs emerge: 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP camera]
A few weeks ago, AppAnnie released statistics showing that iOS app revenue growth had stalled over the summer of 2012, whereas Android app revenue growth was relatively strong at 48% over a five month period. Both Distimo and Appannie are respected companies and their analytics are closely followed by app industry professionals. Could it be that the pace of iPhone app revenue growth has slowed down sharply from 2011 levels, even if Distimo and AppAnnie numbers aren’t entirely accurate?
This article was originally published by BGR
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
Looks like Brandy hasn't given up on love just yet.
The singer, 33, is engaged to music executive Ryan Press, her rep confirmed to ET.
"They are thrilled and happy and Brandy feels this is so right," an insider tells Us Weekly.
In October, Brandy told ET that prior to Press, she "had given up on love." She tells her personal story of past relationships and how she's gotten to the happy place where she is now in her single Wildest Dreams.
VIDEO: Brandy Gave Up on Love Before Two Eleven
Brandy's latest album, Two Eleven, is available now.
A hedge fund founder currently serving the longest prison term ever given for insider trading will also be writing the government a big check.
Raj Rajaratnam, 55, convicted last year of trading on inside information from 2003 through 2009, will pay nearly $1.45 million to settle a civil case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to court documents.
A federal judge approved the deal Thursday.
The settlement includes $1.29 million representing profits gained and losses avoided as a result of trading on tips from former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta, who was convicted separately in June. It also includes $147,738 in prejudgment interest.
AP
Raj Rajaratnam
Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group of hedge funds, is serving 11 years at a Massachusetts federal prison, and has appealed.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott appealed to President Barack Obama Thursday to use his authority to halt a potentially devastating longshoreman’s work stoppage that could cripple ports along the eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast.
On a conference call from Tallahassee with most of the state’s port directors, Scott asked the president to invoke the seldom-used Taft-Hartley Act to stop thousands of longshoremen — many who operate the giant gantry cranes that tower over the ports — from walking out on their jobs after midnight Saturday.
The governor said a walkout would indirectly affect 550,000 jobs statewide and would cut into more than $66 billion in economic activity at Florida’s ports.
“Our message to President Obama is simple — a shutdown of Florida ports is simply not an option,” said Scott.
The International Longshoreman’s Association has said it will halt activity this weekend if the U.S. Maritime Alliance does not back off its demand that royalties, or bonuses paid to its 14,650 workers for every container they load, are cut or done away with. Those royalties in many instances come to about half of a longshoreman’s salary, which is typically around $50,000 a year.
Taft-Hartley, which was last invoked by President George W. Bush in 2002 during a crippling West Coast strike, mandates an 80-day cooling off period, and mediation. The two sides had been negotiating a new contract since March, until talks broke off Dec. 18. At the pushing of a federal mediator, the sides agreed to resume talks this week, though little has leaked out about how the talks are going, or even if the sides have come face-to-face.
Strikes are expected at 15 ports across the nation, from New York and New Jersey, down the eastern coast through Florida, and on up into the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Houston. The cruise industry is not expected to be affected.
Thursday, with leaders from six Florida ports in tow, Scott said he had not heard back from the president since an initial request last week that the president use all his power to stop the looming strike. A port strike has become a critical issue for Scott, who campaigned on bringing down skyrocketing unemployment, and who said Thursday that statewide employment levels have reached a four-year low.
The governor said the state has invested $421 million since his inauguration into ports that primarily do trade with South and Central America.
“It’s such a vital part of the job market,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Obama Spokesman Matt Lehrich said the White House was monitoring the situation and is urging the parties to “continue their work at the negotiating table to get a deal done as quickly as possible.”
Bill Johnson, who directs PortMiami, said a work stoppage could be devastating to the entire U.S. economy. His port, he noted, is the second largest generator of wealth and jobs in South Florida. He said 90 percent of the nation’s consumer goods come through the nation’s ports. PortMiami alone does about $18 billion a year in container business.
“You would start to see within a number of days products disappearing from shelves,” said Johnson.
Port Everglades CEO Steven Cernak noted that petroleum, which has a large distribution operation at his port, would not be affected. He said he remains “cautiously optimistic.”
A strike would be more harmful to PortMiami than to Port Everglades. PortMiami does almost $20 billion a year in container activity, which makes up about 40 percent of the ports business. Hundreds of longshoremen work in PortMiami for giant container transport companies like Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company. Only two container transport companies in Broward use longshoremen.
A strike, however, wouldn’t completely paralyze the nation.
A memo last week from the ILA said the only items likely to be affected by a strike are some frozen goods and non-perishables like clothing. Union members are still expected to ship items such as fresh fish and flowers, military cargo, and mail.
One of the louder voices in the struggle has been the National Retail Federation. Jonathan Gold, vice president of Supply Chain and Customs Police for the federation told CNBC earlier this week that the 2002 West Coast strike cost the U.S. $1 billion a day in economic activity, and that it took more than six months to recover.
Paul Anderson, who recently left his post at chief executive at JaxPort to become chief executive of Tampa’s Port Authority, noted that 34,000 containers pass through Florida’s ports each week, distributed to or from more than 60 ships. He feared a strike could lead to a national tipping point.
“A strike this Saturday,” said Anderson, “combined with the fiscal cliff negotiations, could be a one-two punch to our nation’s economy.”
Microsoft announced Wednesday it’s opening six new permanent stores in early 2013 - and one will be at Dadeland Mall in Kendall.
“We’re thrilled to ring in the New Year by announcing the locations of our first new store locations for 2013,” said Jonathan Adashek, Microsoft’s general manager for sales and marketing, in a news release.
An official opening day for the store has not been released.
For the holidays, Microsoft had a temporary store at Dadeland Mall near Abercrombie & Fitch.
Other permanent Microsoft Stores set to open soon are in San Antonio; Beachwood, Ohio; San Francisco; Salt Lake City and St. Louis, the release said.
At the beginning of December, the traditional video game industry attempted another iPad invasion. New versions of “Grand Theft Auto,” “Modern Combat” and “Baldur’s Gate” hit the iOS app market priced between $ 5 and $ 10. Over the past years, we have seen repeated attempts by major console and PC industry franchises to tailor their blockbuster games for iPhone and iPad platforms. None have succeeded. As the iOS app market increasingly favors free games with in-app purchases, the old-timers have started failing spectacularly.
[More from BGR: Microsoft Surface trampled at the bottom of the tablet pile this Christmas]
December is the most important month of the year for the iOS app market and the days around Christmas are the hottest period. As consumers upgrade their iPhones or receive their very first iOS devices, they tend to go on mobile app buying binges. That is why mega franchises like GTA and “Modern Combat” launched their latest iOS products at the beginning of the month. The games were supposed to stay alive for at least three weeks. They did not.
[More from BGR: Mark Cuban: Nokia Lumia 920 ‘crushes’ the iPhone 5]
The lavishly marketed “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” peaked on iPhone app chart at No.2 on December 8th and plunged to No.36 by December 22nd. It rebounded to No.25 on December 25th. On the iPad, the game plummeted to a shocking No.52 by the all-important Christmas Day, when new iPad owners go berserk on iTunes.
Here is the kicker: on the revenue chart for U.S. iPad apps, the new GTA game had tanked to No.75 by December 25th. This is even worse than the No.52 position on the download chart. I find that genuinely fascinating, because it means that a game with a very stiff download price of $ 5 is showing weaker revenue performance than on raw download volume.
The GTA title is priced at $ 5 at a time when 80% of the top-grossing iPad games are free downloads. The top free apps have compelling in-game purchase strategies — “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” does not. As a result, it is getting beaten by titles such as “Fairway Solitaire” and “My Little Pony” in revenue generation. Having massive name recognition and hundreds of millions of units in console game sales helps very little in the brutally competitive iOS game market.
“Modern Combat 4″ has also plunged out of top-50 on the iPad revenue chart just three weeks after its high-profile debut. The $ 10 update of “Baldur’s Gate” is out of top-200, brought low by its ridiculously high sticker price.
The proud console and PC game champions keep repeating the same gambit in the iOS market: price ‘em high and ignore the in-app purchase angle. They keep failing. When are we going to see a major console game franchise finally adapt to the Apple (AAPL) ecosystem and create an iOS game that is free to download but lures users into an in-app purchase trap effectively?
This article was originally published by BGR
Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News
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