Will your gadgets freeze in your car in the winter?

6 hrs.

Whitson Gordon , Lifehacker

You almost always have your laptop, iPod, and smartphone with you, but don't always want to lug them around. Is it okay to leave them in your car if it's particularly cold outside? What about in the summer heat? You know extreme temperatures aren't good, but how hot is too hot and?how cold is too cold?

We've?talked about temperature limits?before, but more in the context of CPU temperature???leaving gadgets?in your car in the cold or heat is a completely different matter, since it affects the battery, screen, and other parts. In general, you want to avoid extreme temperatures as much as possible, so no, I wouldn't recommend leaving it in your car. Here's a bit more detail on what your laptop or smartphone can take.

How hot is too hot?
We all know heat is bad for your tech. Not only can it?fry the processor?of your laptop or gadget, but it can lower your battery's life and even make the hard drive expand. And, if you live in a humid area, you also have to worry about condensation building up on the inside.

Generally,?once it hits 90? or 95? Fahrenheit, you want to start shielding your laptop and smartphone from the heat. Remember that the inside of your car will get hotter than the outside, too, so even if it isn't quite 90??outside, you should keep it in your bag or leave it at home. And, if you absolutely must have it with you, do your best to keep it in the shade and out of direct sunlight.?Laptop stands?can also help a great deal.

How cold is too cold?
Cold is a slightly more interesting beast. In general, tech runs much better when it's cool than when it's hot, but when you start approaching extreme winter temperatures, the weather can be just as harmful as in the summer. If you leave your device in the cold for too long, its battery will die and its LCD screen will likely start having issues, and possibly die completely. Furthermore, if you leave it in the cold and then bring it into a warm room quickly, you can cause condensation to build up inside the device, which has the potential for more long-term damage.

PC World found that?different gadgets can withstand different temperatures of cold, but to be conservative, we recommend taking precautions once the ambient temperature reaches freezing, or 32? Fahrenheit. Lower than that, and you'll slowly start to see different errors or issues until your gadget powers down altogether. When you can, keep your laptop in a case or bag and your smartphone in your pocket, to help shield it from the winds of winter.

Lastly, if for some reason you?do?expose your gadget to extreme temperatures, don't try to use it right away. Instead, let it warm up or cool down to room temperature before you turn it on. This will help protect your gadget from more lasting damage from things like condensation. In general, just use common sense: if your computer feels particularly cold or hot to the touch before it's even on, you probably shouldn't leave it alone in that weather.

More from Lifehacker:

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/will-your-gadgets-freeze-your-car-winter-1C7505412

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Syrian economy to shrink 20 percent in 2012: IIF

BEIRUT (Reuters) - War-ravaged Syria's economy will shrink by a fifth in 2012 and all its foreign reserves could be spent by the end of next year, a global finance industry association said on Monday.

Since a revolt that has since descended into civil war started in March 2011, inflation has risen to 40 percent and the Syrian pound's official exchange rate against the dollar fallen by 51 percent, the Institute for International Finance said.

As well as financing the war, President Bashar al-Assad's government has spent billions of dollars of hard currency reserves on wages, fuel subsidies and propping up the pound, bankers in Damascus say.

The Washington-based IIF said the reserves could be depleted by the end of 2013.

Opposition activists estimate some 40,000 people have been killed in Syria as fighting between rebels and the army has raged in almost every city and has now reached the outskirts of the capital.

International measures to pressure Assad to step down have also affected the economy.

"The sanctions by the Arab League introduced in late 2011 and the September 2011 U.S. and EU. sanctions have meant more economic hardships for 2012 and 2013," said Garbis Iradian, deputy director of the IIF's Africa and Middle East department.

Syria has not yet released economic forecasts for 2012 but the finance ministry has said GDP growth will be positive.

REGION AFFECTED

Syria's war has affected the countries around it, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Trading routes have also been cut.

Lebanon, its smaller neighbor that is rebuilding after its own 15-year civil war, has borne the brunt of the turmoil.

Lebanon's economy is due to grow by 0.6 percent this year, a significant drop from 1.8 percent in 2011 and 7 percent in 2010, the IIF said, after political bickering and sporadic sectarian clashes linked to Syria's conflict have scared off investors.

"The deepening conflict in Syria continues to pose a threat to Lebanon's political order and economic stability," Iradian said.

If Lebanese politicians were to reach a consensus on effective government, improve domestic security and implement fiscal and structural reforms then the 2013 GDP forecast could reach 3.5 percent at best, he said.

"If this doesn't happen, it would likely be 1 percent."

Foreign direct investment dropped from 10 percent of GDP before the Syrian crisis to hardly 2 percent of GDP, he said. But the banking sector has remained resilient and the Lebanese pound is stable.

Nassib Ghobril, chief economist at Byblos Bank, which hosted the launch of the report, said Lebanon could have mitigated the adverse impact of the Syria turmoil on the economy "if Lebanese politicians and government officials made a concerted effort to maintain political stability."

(Reporting by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-economy-shrink-20-percent-2012-iif-140745382.html

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Google to stop offering free Google Apps to small businesses

File art

Google will stop offering the free version of its Google Apps to small businesses with less than 10 employees.

Lisa Ward

Web contributor- Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

Google Inc. will stop offering the free version of its Google Apps to small businesses with less than 10 employees.

The move will not affect current customers using the service, according to the Wall Street Journal. Google Apps includes a "custom email address, Google Docs and Google Drive online storage as well as customer support for paying customers," according to the report.

Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president in charge of Google Apps, told the Wall Street Journal that the move was intended to improve customer service, which is only available to paying customers. Currently, companies with more than 10 users pay $50 a person each year for the service, according to the report.

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Pebble smartwatch hit with further delays, won't be stuffing a stocking near you

Pebble's finally coming soon! Just not in time to become one of the season's hottest stocking stuffers. As seems to be par for the course with Kickstarter projects, the blockbuster smartwatch is more than a bit behind schedule, but the team is hot on the case, keeping backers in the loop with regular update posts. The latest, which hit inboxes just this afternoon, confirms that the device will support iPhone SMS and iMessage notifications (phew!), assuming you have it linked up with an Apple device running iOS 6. We also got to take a peek at some hot-off-the-press Pebbles in their final finishes -- the black, gray, orange, red and white wearables posed for a point-and-shoot, so they don't pack the typical punch of a pro photo job. Still, they look mighty slick, and if the shot above is any indication, they might turn out to be quite the fingerprint magnets, too. We'll be keeping an eye on Kickstarter for an official shipment notification, but in the meantime, backers are invited to login to their Pebble accounts to make final color selections by next Friday. You can hit up that site at the source link below, then hop past the break for an iMessage demo.

Gallery: Pebble final colors

Continue reading Pebble smartwatch hit with further delays, won't be stuffing a stocking near you

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

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The 'skills gap' may be your fault, employers

22 hrs.

John W. Schoen , NBC News

With the economic recovery stuck in low gear, Tammy Krings has something of a happy problem for her growing, Columbus,?Ohio-based global travel business, TS24.

Some 17 years after starting with out?three employees, Krings is wrapping up a barnburner year. The company booked so much new business in 2012, she's had to?hire 60 new employees ? up from a staff of?120 in January.

Faced with that kind of rapid growth, Krings says she ran smack into one of the biggest hurdles cited by many?employers today: the so-called ?skills gap.?

??My frustration is you keep hearing about these unemployment numbers, but we have a very, very difficult time finding qualified people,? she said.

Researchers and staffing consultants say Krings' frustration is widespread, the result of a host of powerful?forces jarring the labor market?? from the ongoing, rapid infusion of technology into the workplace to the decline of vocational training in the American education system and the ongoing, mass exodus of a generation of skilled baby boomers headed for retirement. ???

As a result, Krings learned what labor economists and staffing consultants say is the hard reality of finding skilled workers in a?rapidly changing workplace.?

If you can?t find?what you?re looking for, try harder. And if that doesn?t work, you may have to cough?up the money to train the best new hires you can find.

Rock Center: Apple CEO Tim Cook unveils plans to make Macs in the US

?We?ve been able to find the types of people that we want as long we are willing to invest in them to bring them to the level of skill that we need,? said Krings.

But millions of small- and medium-sized employers, the businesses that create the bulk of new jobs, are apparently?unwilling or unable to spend the money to bring new hires up to speed.

?I don?t think companies are confident enough right now to make big investments (in training)," said?Melanie Holmes? who has tracked workplace issues in a 30-year career with Manpower, a global staffing company. ?They want to hire someone who can be productive tomorrow."

There?s no debate about the increased demand for higher-skilled workers in an economy that relies more heavily every year on advances in technology to raise the productivity of each worker. That?s why the jobs that employers said they had the hardest time filling in 2012 were skilled trades, engineers and IT Staff, according to a?Manpower survey.

?It used to be all you needed was a strong back and an alarm clock to get a really good, family-sustaining job in manufacturing,? said Holmes. ?Unfortunately for individuals ? and fortunately for companies ??technology has changed that. You need at least some post-secondary education.?

But a decades-long shift in emphasis on four-year, liberal arts college degrees has drained the supply of students entering job-based, vocational and technical schools. Employer- and union-sponsored training programs have also become artifacts of the last century, according to Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania?s?Wharton?School who heads the school?s Center for Human Resources.?

?Apprenticeship programs have collapsed,? he said. ?We?ve got, by far, the least apprenticeship training per capita than any other industrialized country.?

Related:?Economic reality marries age-old idea -- apprenticeships -- with college

That has shifted the burden of skills training to employers ? a burden many say they?re unwilling or unable to take on. The current dearth of company-sponsored training programs is also, in part, a hangover from the mass layoffs and hiring freezes that accompanied the Great Recession. ??

?Training was one of the first things that we cut during the downturn because we weren?t hiring,? said Krings. ?If you?re not hiring, you don?t need to have anyone on board to train new hires.?

But with the economy now in its third year of a halting recovery, many companies continue to defer spending on training.

?It comes down to an excuse of budget limitations,? said?David Smith, a human resources consultant at Accenture.??The biggest issue probably is return on investment. It?s hard to measure the results. But it?s a poor excuse. People just get hung up so quickly on that point and they?re very, very short-sighted.?

Some companies simply don?t get it. Many of the ?skills gap? complaints are coming?from small companies that have limited or no human resources expertise, according to Capelli.

?If they don?t have anybody in house who understands recruiting and training and development, then there?s nobody to explain to management ?We?re looking in the wrong places? or? ?We can?t pay this much and expect to get the people we want.? ?

Related story: The 'fiscal cliff' and other reasons companies aren't hiring more workers

One simple solution would be to raise wages. The laws of economics suggest that if something is in short supply, prices should rise until demand is satisfied. If a computer programmer can earn $50 an hour working for a software company, she has little incentive to accept a $25 an hour job programming a manufacturing robot.

But Krings says she just can?t afford to pay the salaries that the best applicants are asking.

?Our customers don?t want to pay the rate they were paying three years ago,? she said. ?We?re doing more for less today.?

Like Krings, most employers apparently?are unwilling or unable to pay higher wages to compete for better skills. Manpower?s survey found that only 11 percent had increased starting salaries in 2012 to help recruit talented workers. More than three times as many said they preferred to provide additional training to existing staff.

Some hiring managers just give up looking and defer new?hires, assuming they'll save money that will add to profits. But that strategy generates a?false sense of?economy because few employers account for just?how much those unfilled jobs are costing them, said Capelli.

?You can?t account for lost opportunities, or the work that?s not getting done, or the burnout of your employees --?who all want to get out of there now because they feel you're abusing them with overwork,? he said. ?You can?t account for any of that stuff, so it looks like you?re saving money.?

Though tight budgets and a weak economy may have crimped companies' spending on training and bigger paychecks, hiring managers bemoaning the "skills gap"?may be in for a rude shock if the?economy picks up speed?next year. With increased demand for talent, the ?skills gap? will only worsen as more companies have to draw from the same pool of workers, said Holmes.

?I think it?s going to worse before it gets better,? she said. ?If business does come back year next year, we?re not going to have enough people."

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/employers-may-be-aggravating-skills-gap-1C7450821

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Review: 3 weather phone apps help you on the go

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) ? For me, climate change is a serious issue. No, I'm not referring to the debate over global warming. My concerns are much simpler. I'm constantly checking the weather for the hours and days ahead because deciding to hike on a rainy day or neglecting to dress warmly can put a damper on a vacation.

During recent travels, I tried several free weather apps for the iPhone and Android phones. (Versions for tablet computers also are available, but I didn't test those extensively.)

I didn't try to determine which is more accurate at predicting the weather. They are all generally good, but not error-free. Rather, I evaluated each based on features and ease of use.

The ones I tested operate similarly on iPhones and Android phones, though there are some differences in how information gets presented or accessed. Here's a look at three apps I recommend:

___

The Weather Channel

When you open this app, the home screen presents you with current conditions, including temperature, humidity, wind, visibility, UV index (a gauge of the strength of ultraviolet radiation) and dew point (which I have yet to figure out a use for). You also get information on sunrise and sunset times.

Navigating the tabs, you get hourly forecasts for the next 24 hours on the iPhone and 15 on the Android. On both, you get daily forecasts for the next 10 days. The Android version doesn't include dates, so you're left to figure out whether Saturday means this Saturday or next weekend. Click on "36 Hour" for brief written summaries for today, tonight and tomorrow.

The map shows you the radar for your region, giving you an idea of how far away a storm might be. During my travels, I've used this feature to gauge how quickly heavy rain might pass. You can switch that to show cloud cover instead of radar, or show both. You can also add details such as rain or snow over the past 24 hours.

You can check weather anywhere in the U.S. by entering a city name or ZIP code. Or click on a target icon for the weather where you are, as determined by your phone. There's a location icon at the bottom of the Android version. On the iPhone, you're left to figure out that you need to click on the magnifying glass or the "i'' button for settings. Flick the screen left or right to check weather in other locations you have stored.

The app also offers video of weather forecasts and news, with those from your city or region coming up first. There are tools for seeing what people are saying about the weather on Twitter and for sharing your weather-related photos and video. The app offers a pollen report; the iPhone version has hurricane and maritime conditions, too. The Weather Channel says that information is coming to Android next year, along with longer hourly forecasts.

Conclusion: You get lots of information on current conditions and the most options of the three for viewing maps. Limiting hourly forecasts to 24 hours or less is stingy. On The Weather Channel's website, I get two days of hourly forecasts.

___

AccuWeather

The home screen also offers temperature, humidity, wind, UV index and visibility conditions, plus sunrise and sunset. The Android version lists wind gusts, not just wind speeds. The iPhone version has information on dew point, while Android does not.

AccuWeather goes beyond The Weather Channel in offering 15 days of forecasts, not just 10, and offers dates on both the iPhone and Android. Its extended forecasts are also more detailed than the Weather Channel's. You can click on a day to get those details.

Comparable with The Weather Channel, AccuWeather offers just 24 hours of hourly forecasts on its app. By contrast, you get more than three days on its website, and even more with a paid subscription. AccuWeather has more details than The Weather Channel for each hour, though you're left to figure out where to flick and touch to get those details.

AccuWeather's map is adequate, but doesn't offer as many options as The Weather Channel's.

As for location, the Android version has a target icon on the home screen (it's buried in the other apps) to quickly pull up information on where you are. That button is not coming to the iPhone for another few months, so for now, the location is harder to change. Unlike the other apps I tried, AccuWeather doesn't offer suggestions as you start typing in the name of a city to switch locations. With big fingers on a small touch keyboard, I had to type "Sault Ste. Marie" in its entirety for the sister cities in Michigan and Ontario.

Like The Weather Channel, AccuWeather offers local, regional and national video. AccuWeather has special forecasts for certain types of activities ? such as golfing, bicycling and lawn mowing ? as well as risks for asthma, flu and migraines. However, you're just given a one-word assessment, such as "poor" or "excellent," with no clues as to why it might be a horrible day to run or ski.

Conclusion: The app could be better with its hourly forecasts. It also ought to be easier to change locations. The activities forecasts show promise, though I long for more details. AccuWeather promises some of these desired features in a few months. AccuWeather has typically been my first stop for weather information on a regular computer, but the app leaves me wanting for now ? unless I'm looking for extended forecasts.

___

WeatherBug

This app's home screen crams a lot of useful information without clutter. That screen doesn't give you as much detail as the others on current conditions. Humidity, dew point and UV index are missing from the Android version, and neither version has information on visibility, sunset or sunrise. What you get instead is a graphical forecast for upcoming days ? today plus five days for Android and two for the iPhone.

Touch on the forecast section for additional days and details ? though you get only seven in all, the fewest of the three apps. Click on any day for written summaries of day and evening forecasts. Then click on that for hourly forecasts. Yes, that means nearly seven days of hourly forecasts, not the stingy 24 hours (or less) offered by the other two.

WeatherBug's radar map is OK, but not as versatile as The Weather Channel's.

WeatherBug doesn't have a target icon on the Android version to help you quickly get weather for where you are, but it's not really needed. On both the iPhone and Android, weather automatically updates to your current location when you have GPS enabled.

Switching locations or adding one by city or ZIP code is relatively easy, but only the iPhone version offers suggestions as you type. Once you enter a city, you can narrow your choice to a specific school, airport or other weather monitoring station. WeatherBug has placed more than 10,000 of these across the country. The others offer localized weather by analyzing available data from government and private sources. From my office in New York, I can get current conditions at a nearby school rather than a Central Park station 1.6 miles farther away.

Video is limited to national forecasts, but still images from several nearby locations let you see for yourself whether it's raining. A recent update to the WeatherBug app adds such specialty forecasts as golfing, pollen and dry skin. There aren't as many choices as AccuWeather's app, but you get more details for the ones that are available.

Conclusion: I find WeatherBug to be the easiest to use of the three, and I love the extended hourly forecasts. It's a good choice as long as you're not looking for a lot of video and a forecast beyond seven days.

___

Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology editor for The Associated Press, can be reached at njesdanun(at)ap.org.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/review-3-weather-phone-apps-help-183942217.html

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