HP Envy Spectre XT

If you're looking for a thin, highly portable computer, you've got some gorgeous options this holiday season. Here are our favorites right now. 

Slim, light, and sleekly designed, HP's $999 13-inch laptop takes a more practical approach than the all-glass Envy Spectre 14 from earlier this year. It doesn't have any surprising features, but it may be the best and most compact ultrabook we've seen recently.

The good: Slim and lightweight, the HP Envy Spectre XT is portable, well-built, and easy to use, with a great keyboard.

The bad: The design doesn't stand out as much as the original Spectre's did, and its battery life won't get you through an entire day. From a premium product, we'd expect a higher screen resolution.

The bottom line: A high-end laptop at a mainstream price, the HP Envy Spectre XT gets much of the look and feel right, with only a few missteps.

Facebook Inc (FB) Begins To Roll Out New Privacy Settings

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) declared plans to sort its privacy control settings earlier, and now a chain of the new list of options and notifications has started to roll out to users of the social network, starting with New Zealand. Users in New Zealand can access the new settings which is the same as the preview screenshots posted by ABC last week.

The changes are intended to provide users with better access, and know-how of methods with which they can monitor the privacy of their materials on the site. A new privacy shortcut menu has been added to the main bar that runs across the site. There is another new privacy setting and tool page that shows the simplified version of privacy options and allows users to opt out of having content from their timeline indexed by search engine.

The new message welcomes users as soon as they login on Facebook. It is intended to certify that all of them are made alert of the new settings, and especially how they can block users who are fretting them. The menu bar is located in between the ‘home’ and ‘settings’ icon on Facebook’s top menu bar. It drops down to tell a series of options that help know which data from the social network is made public while enabling quick-settings to change confidentiality options and a link to the fuller settings page.

The social networker’s new privacy settings will  to an extent decrease Facebook’s various menus and settings, but there are still more development to be made. Numerous settings are still difficult to find, decisively, the choice to view your profile from the viewpoint of other users, which visibly reveals what data is publicly available.

Privacy for long has been a point of concern for the social network giant. In November 2011, it was ruled in the United States that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) would bear 20 years of privacy audits from the Federal Trade Commission due to what CEO Mark Zuckerberg self-confessed were “mistakes” in its management of privacy issues, and that has most probably effected its most recent developments.

Nicky Jackson Colaco, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) manager of privacy and safety said that the latest settings will be launched worldwide before the end of the year, and the initial step has been taken already. New Zealand has often been the test spot for Facebook, and the settings are yet to be launched in Australia, the U.S. and the U.K.

Leaked images allegedly show Google's iOS Maps app

Blurry images that surfaced today purportedly show Google's Map app for iOS, suggesting that the Web giant is already making progress in developing a standalone app.

Developer Dan Guild posted what are allegedly leaked photos of an iPhone running a native version of Google Maps, which he described as being in the alpha stage.

Guild said the new app was vector based, with the ability to use two-finger rotation to achieve any angle. He also said it was "super fast" and supported the height of the iPhone 5's 4-inch screen.

Apple ignited consumer fervor last month when it opted to dump Google Maps from iOS6, forcing users to switch to Apple's app, which many users found to be underwhelming or inaccurate when compared with Google's offering. Google has reportedly been "scrambling" to finish a replacement Google Maps application.

The situation led CEO Tim Cook to issue a rare apology for Apple's beleaguered map application, saying that Apple was "extremely sorry" for the frustration felt by customers and vowed to improve the program.

The Voice Season 3 Premiere Part III

Now THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about. Wednesday night’s episode of The Voice really had it all—some phenomenal highs and some hilariously catastrophic lows (Schadenfreude central!). So let’s just dive right in.

Far and away the best audition of the night came from hippie-commune-chick Nicole Nelson. Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” has seen many interpretations, but Nicole’s heartfelt, unapologetic, beautifully melodic rendition was not only refreshing (in light of some almost laughably bad auditions), but incredibly memorable. She joins Bryan Keith and Trevin Hunte as the third audition I went back and watched again this season. And like most contestants who find themselves in front of all four judges, she picked Adam as her coach. Check out Nicole’s blind audition below and let me know what you thought:

Poor, dear, Chris Trousdale. This 27-year-old was once a tween heartthrob you might recognize from the maybe sort of kind of successfulish boyband Dream Street. Wait, you remember him?! No no, you’re thinking of Jesse McCartney. This guy works at a sushi restaurant. Regardless, one would think a person with vocal performance experience would knock this thing outta the park, right? Oh so terribly, terribly wrong. Since NBC doesn’t post the failed auditions on their website, here’s a link to the video elsewhere in the cyber realm:

http://www.rickey.org/chris-trousdale-glad-you-came-the-voice/

And then we had Domo. I don’t think I can adequately or appropriately express in words just how much I wanted to push Domo off a cliff and into oncoming traffic in the middle of rush hour while repeatedly having Chuck Norris roundhouse kick her in the face. And it wasn’t just because her personality was sucktastic. Her “singing,” if we can abuse the term so, consisted of weird moans, wails, and breathy exhales that were perhaps related to pitches. But it was mostly a lot of grinding and hip popping in Cee Lo’s face. Please excuse me while I go vom in the corner.

So here’s the team breakdown: joining Team Adam are Rasta-but-not-really-mon Samuel Mouton,Loren Allred, and the ever-dazzling Nicole Nelson. Blake Shelton snatched up the country mother-daughter duo 2 Steel Girls, while Team Xtina almost doubled with the additions of Lisa Scinta,Marissa Ann, and Nelly’s Echo, the Nigerian refugee with a million-watt smile. Team Cee Lo now has… Domo.

We continue with The Voice Blind Auditions next week on Monday and Tuesday at 7:00pm—see you then!

Thanks for reading, and as always, thanks for watching KPRC Local 2!

Baidu launches mobile web browser, wants a bigger slice of China's mobile Internet

Being the biggest search engine in China just isn't enough for Baidu, which has revealed its new mobile internet browser. 

The Internet company already dominates desktop-based internet search but has to spar with the likes of UCWeb and Tencent for attention on smartphone platforms. Baidu says its new browser will improve browsing speeds and offer access to its other web-based apps.

 The program will also augment Baidu's own mobile OS, which launched back in May, with the company aiming to get its browser pre-installed on 80 percent of smartphones sold in China by the end of the year.

Katie Holmes to keep 'millions in jewelry and gifts'

Katie Holmes gets to cash in on her marriage by keeping millions of dollars in jewelry and gifts given to her by her ex-husband Tom Cruise, says a source.

Following reports of a stingy payout from Cruise, RadarOnline’s source claims that “Tom was extremely generous to Katie with lavish gifts during their marriage and she will be keeping millions of dollars of jewelry, Hermes handbags and other luxurious items."

"Tom gave Katie diamond earrings as a birthday gift one year that easily cost over $500k and he had custom design pieces made for her," says the source. "Under terms of the divorce, Katie is keeping all of the jewelry, handbags, accessories, and designer clothing."

The source continues that for the time being, the jewels are being kept in a safe place and will likely be given to their daughter Suri once she is old enough.

The “Dawson’s Creek” actress was reportedly uninterested in Cruise’s millions, wanting to settle her divorce quickly. “Suri has always been Katie's number one priority and concern. During the divorce settlement talks Katie just wanted to make sure that she and her daughter would be taken care of from a financial standpoint," the source added.

The “Mission Impossible” actor is allegedly paying Holmes $400,000 a year in child support for the next 12 years, or until Suri turns 18.

The total payout works out to $4.8 million, which is less than what Cruise makes in a single film.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Will Support All Devices: RIM

　　Beleaguered BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion disputed a report on tech blog Boy Genius Report, which stated the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) would be incompatible with the company’s latest line of smartphones and operating system software, BlackBerry 10. This would force businesses to require two servers to operate the latest BlackBerry devices as well as legacy devices.
　　RIM issued a statement saying BES 10 would support existing BlackBerry devices, including the company’s PlayBook tablet, and all new devices running on the BlackBerry 10 platform.
　　In a statement emailed to ZDnet, which picked up the erroneous report, RIM also took the opportunity to plug the platform. “BES 10 will be the ultimate management solution for all BlackBerry platform devices, as well as iOS and Android devices. BES 10 will launch simultaneously with the first BlackBerry 10 devices,” the statement read.
　　RIM recently released a free update to the BlackBerry 10 toolkit it first offered to developers at its BlackBerry World event in Orlando, Fla., in May. Most notably, the new toolkit features two key sets of APIs—an application invocation framework that will allow apps to interact with each other, and Push APIs that enable developers to send notifications and other content to devices running the new platform.
　　The company has a lot riding on BlackBerry 10, which will consist of an entirely new operating system and new devices, and which it says has received a “phenomenal” response from developers. RIM recently delayed the launch of the platform and devices until the first quarter of 2013.
　　RIM has struggled to hold onto market share as rivals like the Apple iPhone and Google Android-powered smartphones cut into its space. Competition has also increased due to the growing popularity of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives, which allow company employees to use their personal devices in the workplace.
　　Despite denials from the company CEO, Thorsten Heins, that the company is in a death spiral, analysts have begun to speculate on who could step in and acquire the company if the new platform fails to halt a slide in market share.
　　One potential buyer could be Samsung, the world’s largest manufacturer of smartphones, according to investment firm Jefferies. The company's analysts said in a report that they believe Samsung walked away from earlier talks with RIM but is still considering a BlackBerry 10 licensing deal and that BlackBerry 10 was unlikely to meet RIM’s expectations.
　　“We see significant potential for [BlackBerry 10], and it certainly is a vast improvement over BB7,” the analysts, headed by equity analyst Peter Misek, wrote in an Aug. 7 report. “However, we believe it is highly unlikely that it will be an improvement over iOS 6 and about equal to Android 4.1. Therefore, we see little chance RIM can take share away from Apple with BB10.”